


QUARANTINE

by oak_savi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Ben Solo is dark and sad and that's okay, C-Virus, Corona Virus - Freeform, Devoted Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, F/M, Fluff, For those of you who love Ben POV, Future Fic, Light BDSM, Not click bait I promise, Pandemic - Freeform, Real Life, Rey Skywalker, Smut, Star-crossed, Strangers to Lovers, The Microverse, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:21:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oak_savi/pseuds/oak_savi
Summary: Times were strange. The World Health Organization just announced a global pandemic. An unfazed Ben meets a worried Rey at OLY airport in Orly France where they undergo precautionary lockdown.This story isn't just about love, It's about how people react and respond in a pandemic setting; with each growing day, the virus both transforms people and everyday life in this real life, real time fan fiction.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 36
Kudos: 44





	1. DAY 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by real life & fantasy, and modern media.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben meet as strangers at OLY airport in France at the peak of the European outbreak.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

There were so many things he wanted to say, but with such little space, he wrote the only things that mattered and lifted his sign into the sky. 

She waited across the river with anticipation. The river, though only a mile wide, separated them by an international border. She looked into the tower viewer, a telescope permanently mounted from her side. 

_It read_

> _I miss you_
> 
> _I’m sorry_

Her eyes began to swell as soon as she read it. Kneeling on the ground, she reached for the marker. Like him, there was so much she wanted to say, but only one thing remained; the only thing that really mattered. 

_It read:_

> _Come back to me_

**~**

**DAY 1**

**DATE:** **12/03/2020**

 **TIME:** **1300**

Times were strange. The World Health Organization just announced that CHIROVID_19 was a global pandemic. Ben wasn’t phased, in fact, he was downright annoyed. He had flown half way across the world for a meeting, now cancelled, he remains at Orly (OLY) Airport in France, waiting for his connecting flight. 

Chiro virus updates monopolized most media. Public response had been chaotic. Rey was beginning to panic. She was worried for her friends back home. Rey was on scholarship, taking a semester abroad when colleges and universities began to shut down. At Orly (OLY) Airport, she waits for a flight to be announced to take her home. 

She stood behind him in a line, trying to look beyond him to see what the vendor had to offer. They had been waiting in line for sometime, and unfortunately, Rey could not see anything beyond the giant man standing in front of her. 

“Looks grim,” Ben said 

“il reste peu.”

“I don’t know what that means” 

“It means,” Rey spoke up as he turned around, “that there isn’t a lot left.” 

“Huh,” He replied, peering down at her. He looked at her longer than she expected. The attention surprised Rey, whose face flushed red. 

“I’ll take two bottles of water, and these,” He said, pointing to a couple apples on the counter. 

He turned to her, “You speak french?” He asked. 

“Oui, je parle un peu…Ahh, je comprends le français.”

“That’s pretty good, Kid,” He said, passing her a bottle of water and an apple.

“You don’t have to do that.” 

“I know,” He said.

“Under any other circumstances, I would not accept, but given everything, I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

She didn’t say thank you. Instead, she let a smile escape before walking back to her luggage. 

OLY was in complete disarray. So many flights had been cancelled as countries began to make their new protocols public. Rey and Ben sit opposite sides of OLY as the announcement is televised throughout the airport. 

_In response to the growing outbreak of_ CHIROVID_19 _, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, imposed a national quarantine on the entire country of Italy, which will restrict movement of the population except for necessity, work, and health circumstances._

OLY is anything but silent after the announcement. Despite all recommendations to practice social distance, some embrace one another in tears and hugs while others argue. 

It is a strange time indeed. There have been many viruses before this one, but chiro virus has a rapid contraction rate. As many people wait in a state of purgatory, tension reigns high throughout the airport. It’s as if things could not get any worse... 

Time passes slowly as people take turns charging their devices and find corners and seating to claim. 

They meet again. 

“Oh it’s you,” She said to him, “Are you seriously charging all your devices at once?” 

He definitely was. He needed his laptop to complete a proposal, his personal phone and even his smart watch. “Yes,” He responded, enticed by her agitation.

“Well, don't you think you should share A LITTLE?” Rey snarled, trying not to lose her temper. 

“I’ll share with you, if that’s what you’re asking.” Ben, now smug and arguably pompous pulled his laptop charger from the wall, offering her an outlet. 

“You know, you’re not the only one here,” She said, but he didn’t respond. Rey found it incredibly irritating how calm and complacent he was at this time. “Branleur,” She spoke lightly. 

“L'Italie est en lock-out,” An employee spoke to another, “les forces de l'ordre ont ordonné que les individus en dehors de leurs ménages soient retenus sur place.”

“Do you know what that’s about?” Ben asked Rey. 

“The staff? Italy is on lockdown. Police are arresting people who leave their homes.”

“Wow, that’s a bit much, don’t you think?” He offered. 

“It’s hard to say. I thought the chiro virus was only a real threat to the most vulnerable: elderly and young children,” Rey argued with him. “And have you read that the mortality rate climbed from 2.1 to 3.7 in the last 24 hours alone. Maybe the virus is mutating?”

Ben was very much a matter of fact guy. He appreciated the sentiment of raw data, but had more to add. 

“The chiro virus is like any other virus. Except that governments are not prepared to deal with the public. It’s about curving the line,” Ben said, offering his hand out to demonstrate, “See, we are all going to come into contact and likely contract the chiro virus. Essentially, countries want to control the outbreak to ensure that the progression of the outbreak is spread across a longer period of time,” He finished, imitating a mild slope with his hands. “What’s most alarming is the lack of testing kits available to the public in most areas of the world.” 

“And by the world, you mean America, where I’m going to assume you’re from.”

Ben was American, living the American dream. Life is easier when you inherit wealth. Something Rey wouldn't know much about. And something that wasn't important at this time.

“And you the UK? Couldn't you just walk from here?” Ben mocked her with a fake teacup. 

“Actually, I’m Canadian. Well, duel.” 

“HUH. Even better. Your Prime Minister’s wife has CHIROVID_19.” 

She did have the chiro virus. It was announced this morning, and Rey found the news to be absolutely devastating. “True. But she will overcome it, unlike your president, who is absolutely doomed.”

“Can’t argue with you there, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that!”

Both distracted by the banter, it took them a moment to release that the Orly Airport fell silent. A young man ran by. 

“Excuse me, ahh, excusez-moi, qu'est-ce qui se passe?” 

“Les malades s'aggravent dans le terminal ouest! C’est fini!" He said, walking away.

“Fini? What’s over?” 

“He said that there are many sick in the West Terminal.”

They didn’t speak. Instead, they sat side by side, waiting. 

**TIME:** **1700**

 _This is a message from Santé Publique France - Département des Maladies Infectieuses. Afin d'empêcher la propagation du_ CHIROVID_19 _. Tous les vols ont été retardés. OLY est officiellement verrouillé. Les personnes montrant ou ayant eu des contacts avec_ CHIROVID_19 _seront mises en quarantaine dans le terminal ouest, où une équipe médicale attend. Ceux qui ne le sont pas attendront les instructions dans le terminal sud. Nous conseillons à tous les voyageurs de rester calmes. Suivez les instructions du personnel et de la Police Nationale. Nous prenons toutes les précautions pour vous protéger_

 _This is a message from Santé Publique France - Département des Maladies Infectieuses. In Order to prevent the spread of_ CHIROVID_19 _All flights have been delayed. OLY is officially on lockdown. Individuals showing, or have had contact with_ CHIROVID_19 _will be quarantined into the West Terminal, where a medical team waits. Those who are not, will wait for instructions in South Terminal. We advise all travelers to remain calm. Follow the instruction of the staff and Police Nationale. We are taking every precaution to protect you._

 _Dies ist eine Nachricht von Santé Publique France - Département des Maladies Infectieuses. Um die Ausbreitung von_ CHIROVID_19 _zu verhindern. Alle Flüge haben...._

The announcement continued as more and more Police Nationale began to enter, escorting people into the building. 

Ben’s phone rang. 

“Yes Mom. No Mom. Technically no. Yes, I mean NO! I am not alone. Uh huh. Text me then.” He hung up. 

“Is your phone charged? Is there anyone you need to call?” He asked her, offering his phone. 

She looked at her phone in awe. “No,” she paused, "No thank you.” 

“This isn’t good,” Rey stated.

Ben spoke in such a way that was naturally stoic. When he said “No, but you need to remain calm. It’s merely a precaution. Besides, you’re young, fit, and like me, fall into the 96.3% survival rate,” Rey sighed in relief. 

“We need more answers,” She stated.

“Agreed.” 

“Ben. My name. It’s Ben.” 

“Rey.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rey”

“Likewise.” 

They didn’t shake hands, but the general exchange of names was the beginning of something they couldn’t possibly predict. Their lives will be altered forever in such a short time. Though they both welcome the distraction, the unknown awaits. 

_Tous les voyageurs sont tenus de tester à Porte A, Arrivee 1._

_All visitors are required and to test at àPorte A, Arrivee 1._

_Alle Besucher sind verpflichtet, an àPorte A, Arrivee 1 zu testen..._

They looked at one another, as the people began to pool into the hallway and head towards the southern point of the terminal. 

“This is ridiculous, and unsanitary! Wouldn't it be safer to run the tests without compressing all these people into one space? There must be nearly 500 people here.” Ben was annoyed. Not just because this whole thing was very inconvenient, but because it lacked efficient and safe processing. 

“Nearly 500 people here, yet I feel so alone” 

“You’re not alone,” He said firmly, planting his hands on her shoulders to ground her. “Neither are you,” She responded.

With his hands still planted on her shoulders, Rey held him at his forearms as they shared a moment of comfort amongst chaos. 

“Why aren’t we moving along Ben?”

“We will, but we are going to wait until some of the people filter out. I’m in no hurry. Are you?”

“I guess not.” 

“Come on, let’s wait at Porte C until there is room for us.”  
  
The Police Nationale had set up a barrier just north of Porte D. Leaned up against a way, Rey put her headphones in and fell partly into slumber at his side. Ben watched tirelessly as Police Nationale continued to escort people from the testing area beyond the north boundary they had just set up. It seemed as if most of the people were able to return, but it’s hard to scale, as those infected would be escorted out a different exit. The most difficult part of being in the centre of a lockdown is the complete lack of information. It’s easy to google the situation, but little was spoken about this small airport in France. Instead the media projected the closure of concerts, conventions, political institutions and the suspension of sports games and gatherings. 

There were moments when Rey rested that Ben admired her. At one point, Rey’s head rested on his shoulder. Sometime throughout the waiting period, Ben allowed himself to rest, his head weighing on hers. 

**DATE: 13/03/2020**

**TIME:** **200**

“Rey,” Ben said, lightly touching Rey’s arm, “I think It’s time.” 

It was like nothing they had ever seen. In a matter of minutes, an indoor, ventilated facility was set up and stationed at the centre of Porte A. Earlier that day, the hallway had been full of patrons, business as usual. The hallway had grown eerie now and smelt of metal and bleach. Hand in hand, they walked slowly, both observing the sudden changes. They watched as a couple of men were escorted out a back door by Police. 

A worker dressed in full blown hazmat suit handed them each a simple face mask.  
  
“Three at a time, 3 à la fois. 1, 2, 3, vous êtes le suivant,” The worker said, pointed to Ben, Rey and an older man off to the side. 

It was safe to assume that the older man was nervous. Visibly sweating under his sweater vest and dress top, he kept bringing his hands to his forehead to clear constant and relentless sweat. It was an unfortunate time to be a man of his age. The chiro virus affected majority males, over the age of 65. 

Suddenly hyper aware of their surroundings, Ben and Rey observed the movement of the workers. The older man turned away from the Police to cough into his mask. Rey squeezed Ben’s hand harder. Through his mask he spoke “You’re fine. Everything is going to be fine.”

A worker signaled at them to enter. Ben walked in first, pulling Rey in behind him. 

The incubation enclosure was a bottomless, transparent dome. The tent walls consist of transparent plastic, with nontransparent reinforcements along the edges. There were 3 chairs set up for testing and nearly a dozen hazmat workers within the tent. Most of them labeling, sanitizing and preparing completed test kits. 

“Francais? Ou Anglais?”

“English,” Ben stated. 

“Please fill out the documentation.”  
“What does the test entail?” Asked Ben.  
“We’ll check for a fever, followed by a nasopharyngeal swab.”

Ben nodded at the worker, sucking his lips into his mouth before nodding at Rey and offering a flattened smile. 

The older man spoke up, “How long does it take to get the results?” 

“The results take a minimum of 24 hours,” The worker stated, asking the old man to remain calm. 

A moment passed, and the hand held thermostat beeped. 

“Addy, we have another one. Fever of 102.9.” 

The older man flicked the sweat from his forehead and pleaded “NO, It’s unrelated! I have allergies.”

“I’m sorry Sir, we have to take precaution and follow protocol. Frills have your team move this man please,” The worker said.

“But my documentation, I haven’t filled it out yet.”

A woman in a hazmat suit moved closer to them. “Sir, please follow our instructions.” 

“Addy, he’s delirious. He needs medical support,” The worker said to Addy.

“NO, I won’t go. I won’t be condemned to die. I have rights!” The old man pleaded as he pushed away the Police. They reached for him again, but he pulled away and fell to the floor. He removed his mask and began to pray. “Our father, who art in heaven, halo be thy name…”

Rey’s heart was heavy in this moment. It was a horrible sight to watch Police forcefully pull the old man off from the floor. Rey did what she thought was right. She kneeled on the ground next to him, and placed her hand on his back. “You’re going to be okay. It will pass, the fever passes for most. You’re going to be okay,” Rey spoke gently to the older man. 

“Mlle, vous devez reculer. Vous devez reculer, Mlle!,” Police shouted. 

“Rey, what are you doing?” Ben asked.

“I’m showing some fucking empathy around here,” She screamed before directing her attention back to the older man, “See,” she said, pulling off her mask. “You are just like me, and we are going to be okay.” 

“Are you fucking kidding me Rey?” Ben spit out, but she ignored him. 

“You need to get out of here and get medical attention,” Rey spoke softly to the old man. 

“Okay,” He replied, letting out a long sigh as he stood up slowly and offered himself to Police who soon escorted him out. 

Addy directed her attention at Rey “That was some stunt, young lady. How are you feeling?” 

“Physically, I feel well, emotionally, I’m already dead.” 

Addy laughed. 

“Well you don’t have a fever. I’m going to take a swab while you fill out this document and figure out what I’m supposed to do with you.” 

Another worker took Ben’s temperature. 

“Addy, he’s clear.”

“Great!” Addy replied. 

Addy was a reasonable person. She had voluntarily taken this post on behalf of The Santé Publique France - Département des Maladies Infectieuses. Her goal was to cater to the sick, ensure the safe transport of testing kits to and from this post as well as prevent a public catastrophe. Rey reached for Ben’s hand, this time he didn’t reciprocate. In fact, he could hardly keep eye contact with her. Rey wasn’t reckless for reckless sake, she was reckless to prove a point. A point that Ben found very moot. 

“The girl will be incubated into isolation where she will be monitored and Benjamin Solo can return to Porte D. Please dispose of this and add these samples to the batch,” Addy said, handing a worker some plastic waste from the kits. 

“Wait,” Ben said, lifting his face mask and tossing it to the floor.

“Addy, get a load of this. He’s just as stupid as she is.”

Ben smiled at Rey deeply. 

If you were to tell Ben the day before that he would potentially expose himself to the chiro virus to keep a strange girl company, he would have laughed in your face. Yet, here he is. 

Addy couldn’t send them back to Porte D to cause a trickle event, and sending them west terminal wasn’t the best option either. After a minute or two, Addy spoke decisively “Isolate them both in the south east end. There’s a locker room they can stay in.” Addy crossed her arms. “I sure hope you two get along.” Addy let out a little laugh. It was nice to hear laughter again. “Please, refrain from killing yourself today. It’s my job to keep you alive. No more stunts?” 

“No more stunts, ma’am,” Ben replied.


	2. DAY 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OLY is one of the biggest airports in France. The airport extends over 15 square kilometres and has 4 terminals. At the south east side of the south terminal, Ben & Rey are quarantined together in a staff locker room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired and pulled from many different medias that vary from Twilight Zone to Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. If you're into this kind of story, you'll find some aspects and lines from Contagion, and catch some subtle, but candid convergence.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

****

**DAY 2**  
**DATE: 13/03/2020**  
**TIME: 0400**

OLY is one of the biggest airports in France. The airport extends over 15 square kilometres and has 4 terminals. At the south east side of the south terminal, Ben & Rey are quarantined together in a staff locker room. 

There were 2 bathroom stalls and 1 shower. Updates hadn’t been made since the 90’s and the decor reflected that. Red, yellow and brown lockers lengthen around the room with small benches spanned out. 

Rey paced the room, “My phone is with my luggage. My luggage is on the other side of the airport.”

“Addy said that they would bring some supplies when they had a moment. You just have to trust that and be patient,” Ben said to her, his back lay stretched across a bench with his legs planted on either side, his arms under his head. 

“How can you be so calm?” 

“I mean, there’s worse things in life than being stuck in here with me,” He flirted.

“Ben, this isn’t the right time to be charming.” 

“I’m just trying to lighten the mood. While you spend energy pacing the room, nothing changes,” Ben spoke freely, “I think we just need to get some rest.”

Ben lay on the tile floor, bringing both of his hands in a hold behind his neck with his elbows protruding out. 

She laid on her back on a bench nearby. 

She tossed and turned, unable to find rest. Ben on the other hand, fell silent and still instantly. 

  
**TIME: 1000**

The door opens as Addy enters in a hazmat suit.   
“I see you two are practicing social distancing,” She noted, nodding at Rey who was opposite side of the locker room. “I’ve brought some supplies. 1 blanket, 1 pillow, 2 L of water, and some dry food,” She said, dropping a crate on the ground, “I’m sorry, this is all we have at this time.”

“Thank you so much, honestly, you are truly doing god’s work out there,” Rey told her, reaching for the crate. 

The door opened again, Addy was met by a worker. Different from the one they encountered earlier, but dressed the same. 

“Due to your little stunt, we have to monitor you two more closely. Starting with your temperature,” Add said, directing the worker with her hand to Rey. The worker used a hand held device to gage Rey’s temperature while Addy questioned Ben.   
“Have you been experiencing any shortness of breath?”  
“No—”  
“Coughing and, or sneezing?”  
“No—”   
“Vomiting or diar—”  
“—NO!”   
“Well, aren’t you in tip top shape, wouldn’t you agree Rey? As they say in the UK, this one is fit.” Addy joked.   
“She’s good Addy," The worked confirmed Rey's temperature.   
“Great, thank you," Addy replied. 

The worker moved in closer to Ben while Addy questioned Rey.   
“Have you been experiencing any—”  
“—No”  
“Coughing and, or snee?”  
“—No.”   
“Vomiting or diar—”  
“—Absolutely Not.” 

“He’s good.” The worker relayed to Addy. 

“Addy, would it be possible to retrieve our luggage somehow?” Ben asked. 

“Yes, I left my phone with my luggage near Porte C.” Rey stated. 

“It’s possible, however, low priority. Let me see what I can do.” 

Addy made her way to the door. 

“Wait, Addy,” Rey stopped her, “How is everyone in the West Terminal? How is that older man?” 

“You need not to worry about the welfare of the people. That’s my job.” 

“I have no service in here, could you at least update us?” Ben asked politely. 

Addy whispered something into the worker's ear before they left the room. She returned to talk. 

“The north side will be monitored for the next 48 hours, and then our goal is to get the healthy people on a plane. You two will be monitored closely as the older gentlemen you came into contact with has fallen very ill.” 

“So he’s doing horribly?” Rey asked.

“He’s ill. A lot of people are ill.” Addy added.

“What about the chiro virus itself. Have you come into new information?” Ben asked.

“At this point we have to believe it is respiratory. Maybe fomites too.”

“What’s that? Fomites?” Asked Ben. 

“It refers to transmission from surfaces. The average person touches their face 2000 to 3000 times a day.”

“2 to 3000 times a day?” Rey asked in a state of disbelief. 

“Three to five times every waking minute. In between, we are touching doorknobs, water fountains, railings, and each other. Those things become fomites,” She stopped to laugh in her mask, “It’s crazy. A plastic shark in a movie will keep people from getting in the ocean, but a warning on the side of a pack of cigarettes—”

“You’re saying that people aren’t receptive?” Ben retorted. 

“I’m saying that people, generally, don’t understand _the microverse_. What we have determined is that for every person who gets sick, they are likely to infect 2-4 people. We call that number the R-naught. R stands for the reproductive rate of the virus. Have I said too much?”

“No. It’s refreshing to speak to you about it,” Ben responded.

“Listen, you two have little to worry about. In time, everyone will contract the virus. The WHO’s goal is to try to bend the curve.” 

Ben looked at Rey, imitating the slope with his hand as he had done the day previous. 

“Don’t forget us Addy,” Rey cried as Addy exited the room. 

“I won’t.” Addy smiled before disappearing into the hallway. 

“Why do you care about the old man so much?”

Rey responded, “I care about everybody too much, that’s my problem."

Ben didn’t care enough. That was his problem. 

“You can have the pillow, I’ll keep the blanket if that’s okay,” Rey said, setting the pillow aside. “I haven't truly slept yet," adding, “I would kill for a coffee right now. Do you think it would be appropriate to rummage the lockers?” 

“Absolutely Rey. I’ll snoop if you snoop.” 

“Something to do I suppose?” 

“Well, we have to stay busy or we’ll go crazy.” He said to Rey, half smiling. 

They began to open and pick at the lockers. 

“This feels so intrusive…” Rey remarked, “LOOK, a sudoku book!”

“That’s pretty good kid. I’m seeing a lot of uniforms and dirty socks on this side.” 

Ben opened another locker to find photographs taped to the door of a young family. He pulled the photograph from the door and held it under the light. It reminded him of his own family. A happy mother, an absent father and an unenthused child. 

“Ben, It's our lucky day!” Rey’s excited voice carried throughout the room. 

Ben placed the photo back into the locker and turned to her. She held a small french press coffee maker and a portable electric kettle. 

“Wow, maybe god does exist,” Ben said, walking up to her to grab the french press. 

“Well of course God exists.” Rey stated. 

“Do you really believe that?” Ben asked

“I believe there’s more to life than just us. Maybe an all encompassing force that surrounds us? God is just a blanket word for spirituality; represented in a variety of diverse ways.” 

“God is just a blanket word for government and society to oppress people. And it doesn’t work anymore. Generally, people aren’t inherently bad or good. They’re just people. And there’s no god.”

“Are you so sure about that?”

“Yes.” 

“Well, I’m serving coffee to those who are open to spirituality and those who are not can lay in a bed of dirty socks,” she said, taking the french press and kettle back from his hands. 

“Now that’s exclusion. You’re going to anger the gods.” Ben moves in closer to Rey, his large frame towering over her, teasing her with his hand on the base of the french press which overlayed hers. 

“Why did you do it Ben? Why did you decide to stay with me?”

“I told you that you weren’t alone, and I meant it.” He ran his hands through his thick black hair to pull it away from his face. “Besides, I couldn’t stand to worry about you.” 

“I’m really glad you’re here. With me.”   
  
It is difficult to distinguish between divine love and lust as it is to explain why we love at all. When the dual nature of magnetic force from one direction proposes the complete opposite direction at the most opportune of times, it’s a magnetic force. Magnetic attraction happens when two entities are energetically aligned. Drawn to one another without the greatest sense of reason, other than how incredibly different they truly are. Though it is seemingly easy to control, Ben and Rey lose themselves and possibly one another in a perfectly constant and magnetic stare. 

The moment didn’t last forever. At some point, Ben’s eyes made their way down Rey’s neck and beyond her blouse. The floral patterns had suited her. Ben pegged her for _the nice girl who didn’t know how hot she was_. He wasn’t wrong, but he couldn’t exactly pinpoint what existed beyond that lure, and that enticed him very much.

The eye contact broke after Ben’s eyes had traveled and now they were awkwardly waiting what to do next. 

“I’ll make coffee, you keep digging for treasure," A panicked Ben responded. 

The eye contact had been so intense that Rey took comfort in the mundane task of rummaging after Ben had taken the french press from her hands to make coffee. After rummaging the remaining lockers, Rey had set aside some towels, sweaters, expired biscotti, a bottle of Absinthe, a deck of cards, a tube of toothpaste and a charger for Ben’s iPhone.

**TIME: 1300**

The locker was comforting in the sense that they didn’t have to witness the chaos of people stranded at OLY, and it allowed them personal space, something that was recommended, yet impossible to achieve at a time and place like this. 

“Where did you grow up?” Rey asked, sipping coffee. 

“I grew up in New York. I spent most of my time at my grandparents house in upstate NY while my mom traveled to and from the city. How about you?”

“I was born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. At 5, I was adopted by a Canadian family who raised me in the lovely rural Ontario. What’s it like in the big apple?” 

“Overrated. Busy. Over populated. The best pizza… what I wouldn’t give for a slice of Joe’s Pizza.”

“Who’s Joe?” 

Ben’s laughter roared. It was nice to hear laughter again. First Addy, and now Ben. Times were strange, and laughter was a nice reminder of the outside world and joy in general. 

“It’s just a name, Rey. There isn’t a Joe. At least not anymore," Ben held a smile for her, "You know, you’re very cute.”

“Listen, I am not going to be one of those doomsday girls who puts out simply because it’s the end of the fucking world.” 

“I didn’t say you were.”

“But you're looking at me like that. The way you looked at me when you said you couldn’t stand to worry about me. I know that look!"

“And what kind of look is that?” 

“Like you’re going to devour me, faster than a slice of Joe’s Pizza!” 

Ben laughed. She wasn’t wrong. You could cut the tension with a knife. Time passed as the two played card games, exchanging small talk and biding their time. 

**TIME: 2100**

“We really shouldn’t.”

“We really should,” He argued, taking a sip from the bottle of absinthe. 

“Let’s play a game?” Rey suggested. 

“I’ll be the repair man? You are the damsel?” He teased her. 

“NO, not a game like that. I state something I’ve never done before, in hopes that you have. And if you have, you have to drink. I’ll go first. Never have I ever… been to a tailor.”

“Well I have, so drink.” Ben said.

“No Ben, you have it all backwards. The person who has done the thing must drink.”

“Ohh…”  
He drinks. 

“Okay. I got one. Never have I ever believed in God”  
She drinks. 

“Never have I ever had a one night stand”   
He drinks. 

“Never have I ever been to a concert.”

“That’s preposterous! I don’t believe you. I could see you flopping your thick black air to some Rage Against the Machine or something? You know, you against the world kind of thing,” She teased him. 

“It’s true. I’ve never been to a concert. I don’t like crowded places.”   
She drinks.

“Never have I ever listened to country music.” She states.   
“Not even the classics? Dolly Parton? John Prine? Johnny Cash?” Ben asks.  
“Johnny Cash is country?”   
“Yes Rey. Drink.”  
They both drank. 

“Never have I ever had a tattoo”  
He takes off his sweater to show Rey the tattoo on his upper under arm. “It’s my family crest. A shield for protection, a crown for loyalty, and rose, which is the officially New York state flower,” He said, taking a drink. Now in an undershirt, Ben is exposed. Rey takes notice. “Never have I ever done a pull up,” She smiles, looking at him from shoulder to shoulder.   
He drinks again. 

“Never have I ever worn a skirt.”  
“That’s cheap Ben! You can do better than that.”   
“Okay,” Ben paused. “Never have I ever been in love.”  
“Are you sure?”   
“I’m not even sure I love my family,” Ben said candidly.   
“Tosh! Of course you love your family,” Rey argued.   
“Can people live without love?” Ben asked honestly.   
Rey spoke freely, “Maybe, but I imagine that life without love is... without. Lacking.” 

The handle vibrated and Addy entered the room.   
“Am I interrupting something?”  
“Of course not! Addy,” Rey cheered, “How are you? Please sit, have a drink with us.”   
“I’d like that, but I’m stuck in here.” She said, poking her inflated hazmat suit.   
“Do you have news? Is that why you’re here?” Ben asked.   
“No, no. Unfortunately. I’m actually just here to escape from the rest of the airport for a few minutes.”

The airport was something Rey and Ben had forgotten about. The words cut like glass through the room. 

“Is it the end of the world out there Addy?” Rey teased.   
“It’s just the beginning, one could argue. You’re lucky to have some company, I have never had the luxury to keep personal relationships. Instead, I work.”  
“Actually, we’re not together,” Rey slipped, “I mean, we are in this moment, but we just met yesterday.”  
“Huh. You fooled me. I thought you were in love,” Addy added.   
“Impossible, Ben here doesn’t believe in love.”   
“I didn’t say that,” Ben said coldly.

A worker came and knocked on the door. “I have to run. Hide that bottle for me? I don’t want you two to cause anymore trouble.” Addy said before leaving. 

“Yes ma’am.” Ben spoke. 

“I think I need to lay down.”   
“Oh. Too much to drink?” Ben said concerned, “Have some water first.”   
“Will you lay down with me?” 

He laid down where he was sitting and patted the floor next to him to invite her. 

They had laid out their only blanket on the ground to shield from the cold tile. Rey curled under Ben’s arms and rested her head on the peak between his shoulder and chest. It took some time for the room to stop spinning. In this moment, all Rey could smell was the dirty socks and the bottle of absinthe nearby. Rey relished in this moment regardless. This was the closest she had been to a hug in some time, and for what it’s worth, Rey needed this hug more than ever. 

**14/03/2020**  
**TIME: 0237**

Hours that passed felt like minutes for Ben, who woke to read his watch before placing his hand on her backside.

“Ben? Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

“Ben?”

“Yes?”

“Tell me everything is going to be okay.” 

He kissed her on the forehead.   
“You’re going to be okay, kid."

“Ben?”

“Yes?”

“Tell me something good. Something to distract me from the world outside these walls.”

He paused, thoughtfully coordinating a response. “Rey, never have I ever met a woman like you, beautiful through and through.” 

She curled into his side, wrapping her leg around him. He wrapped his arms around her, one holding her head in place on his chest and the other on her hip to cover the exposed skin with his warm hand. Rey sighed heavily and closed her eyes. She focused on her breath, directing it to rise and fall with his until they fell out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to be candid for a moment. The virus has flipped my life upside down. Separated from my foreign fiancé. I was supposed to graduate this summer. Now, I find myself in a state of constant stress and/or escapism. It's frustrating to work so hard to get to a point in your life, and suddenly everything changes and now you're worried about how you're going to make your bills, or how you're going to wipe your ass, or how this is all going to play out in the next couple months. The way I see it, I have two options. Stress and read fan fiction, or stress and write fan fiction. I plan to do a little of both! THANKS FOR READING.


	3. DAY 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I read once that Quentin Taratino wrote his screenplays around the soundtrack. I think of that often because music is a big part of my writing. That in mind, we all have different interpretations of art, but I wrote this chapter listening to film score composer Jon Brion’s contributions to the soundtrack of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, more specifically Little Person, by Jon Brion. Listen to the track if you’re interested. 
> 
> TLDR: Had to change rating to explicit. Also, listen to Jon Brion’s Little Person after reading this chapter.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

**DAY 3**

**DATE: 14/03/2020**

**TIME:** **0900**

They woke to Addy entering the room and turning on the lights. 

Ray was still wrapped around Ben when Addy spoke.   
“I see you two are getting more acquainted,” She said into her suit. “I need to take your temperature and another swab.” 

A tired Rey stood up and dragged herself to the bench Addy was setting on. Addy coughed into her suit. “Are you okay?” Asked Rey. 

“Yes, I’m fine.” Addy replied. Unlike the first, this test was over quickly. Both Ben and Rey did not show any symptoms. “You’re almost in the clear. Just another day or so until we get your results, and you'll be able to leave with the second wind of travelers.”

“That’s great news,” said Ben, “Assuming I won't be flying directly back home, where is the second wind flight rendezvous?”

“All that is to be announced,” said Addy, coughing into her mask. 

Rey looked at Ben. His eyes grew longer at the realization. “That doesn’t sound good,” Said Rey, “Is there anyone who could help you?” 

Addy didn’t speak at first. Instead she just stared complacently at the lockers. 

“Listen, if anything happens to me, ask for Frills. I lied to my team about you two. You’re not supposed to be here. I was supposed to send you to the west terminal, I just didn’t have the heart to do it. You reminded me of myself at that age,” She paused as a single tear dropped down her cheek, “Frills knows that you’re here. Be kind out there.” She stood up to leave but Rey chased after her.

“Addy, WAIT!” Addy turned to look at Rey one last time. “I’m so sorry. I’m sure it will pass.” Addy nodded in agreeance to humour Rey. “Please, take care of yourself,” Rey pleaded. 

“Thank you Addy,” Ben said, “For everything.” 

And then she was gone.

A sense of vertigo took over. The small locker had suddenly begun to feel substantially larger, as if the room had bellowed out as a boundless, vast arena with only two players. 

A sense of insignificance set in. There’s something romantic about feeling small. See, we are just little people scraping the surface of knowledge in this universe. From that perspective, if you were to look down at the little people on earth, we’re small, but that elicits freedoms like the understanding that nothing you do or don’t do will break you. As humans, we are both insignificant and significant, and masters of the personal and individual interpretations of that meaning. 

In this moment, their existing lives outside these walls seemed so trivial and irrelevant, but this moment was unabashedly powerful. The mood in the room shifted from trepidation to momentous as they allowed desire to devour them. Heartbeats heavy on the floor, they met in a hurry.

Rey pounced onto Ben, who caught her at ease. Her legs wrapped around his waist while her hands ran through his hair. She kissed him hard, pushing her tongue in clumsily. He accepted happily, his arms wrapped around her waist. Each kiss pushed harder and harder against him as he carried her to the wall of lockers. 

“Ben,” She said, tearing her mouth away from his mouth as he planted her back against a locker. “Yes?” he said, sucking down on her neck.  
“Ben.” She said, pulling his face up to hers with her hands, “I want your eyes on mine.”   
He lowered her delicately, without taking his eyes off her and began to unbutton her floral blouse exposing her bare chest as she fiddled with his belt.

He slipped her blouse off her back, pulling his sweater and undershirt over his head, smiling at her after his collar got stuck a little. Ben lowered to his knees, keeping eye contact while he undid her button and pulled off her high waisted jeans and black lace panties. Using his shoulder for balance, she stepped out of her clothes.

Now, completely exposed to him, he glanced down past her pelvis. He almost lost himself there but Rey captured his head in her hands and directed the gaze of his long hazel eyes back to her. He leaned his body in lower, licking up her clit as Rey gasped. The sound sent Ben into a frenzy as he lifted one of her legs over his shoulder to taste her again. 

She reached for his hand, grabbing him by the wrist and directing the movement up her pelvis along her chest lightly gracing the outside of her very hard nipples before taking two of his massive fingers into her mouth. His body fluttered forward as she sucked hard while he matched her intensity with his tongue against her.

She pulled his fingers from her mouth dripping and then directed his hand back down her body. When she let go, he wasted no time. Lifting his tongue from her clit, he rubbed his wet fingers around her opening to watch her reaction. She moaned in anticipation and into the sensation of his first finger inside her. An excited Ben, forced in another finger. Rey’s body jerked forward, cowering her chest over his face. Greedy Ben, nibbled on her until she pulled away. 

“Stand up,” She demanded.   
He did just that. Both panting, Rey unbuttoned his pants. He rushed all his remaining clothes to the floor. Unveiled to her, Rey reached for him. At first touch, he flinched, the large perfect piece grew harder in her hand. She wrapped her hand around him tightly. The sensation sent Ben’s chin up to the ceiling as he moaned. 

Rey shifted his body to sit on a bench and climbed onto his lap. She kissed him lightly at first, teasing the opening of his mouth before offering her tongue in his mouth while grinding against him. Ben was growing impatient, his hands now digging into her ass, cannily pulling her closer and closer to his cock. Rey stood higher on her knees and reached for Ben’s cock, guiding him to her entrance. With each hand wrapped around Rey’s hips, he forcefully pulled her onto him. She couldn’t resist either, leaning back to feel all of him at once. “Fuck, you feel so goddamn good,” Ben said as his eyes fluttered back into themselves. She giggled, adjusting herself back to sitting position on him. 

They moved together, Rey pulling and bouncing off him and him pulling her back down, sometimes sharper than the time before to hear the sudden smack of it all. Each time she came down and went up, Ben found opportunities to nibble and lick her. Things were getting a little sloppy and uncoordinated as momentum picked up. Ben lost his bearings and fell backward onto the ground, taking Rey with him.

“Ouch,” She said. “I’m sorry, Kid. I guess I got a little too excited?” Ben said, panting while laying on his back. Rey, who was awkwardly wrapped around him, but also around the bench somehow, shifted her body to the ground next to him where she straddled his knees. 

“You’re gorgeous,” He said, checking her out, “You have to know that.” 

“And you Ben, are blessed,” She noted, reaching for his hard and massive piece. 

“Holy shit Rey, you’re killing me. I could spill all over your beautiful body right now.” 

“No. You’re not going to do that. I’m going to look at you this time,” She said, lowering her mouth to him. She teased him at first, lightly licking up his length and kissing the tip. The sensations, though fulfilling, were also agonizing for Ben. When she wrapped her mouth around him to taste him and herself all at once, he forcefully pulled and held her head on his cock until he heard her gag, and she signaled to pull herself up for air. 

Reluctant tears fell from Rey’s face from the gag. “You’re greedy Ben, you have to know that.” 

“You know I can take whatever I want?” He teased her smiling while lifting the hair from her face with his fingers to place it behind her ears. 

“Well then, maybe I should take a stand,” Rey said, as she began to stand up. Ben sat up and pulled her body on top of his before she could get away. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop.” She said nothing, just breaking in and out of small and large smiles. “That’s what I thought,” Ben said, rolling her onto her back and positioning himself on top of her. 

“Ben?”  
“Yes Rey?” He said begrudgingly.   
“Gently this time?”   
He nodded in agreeance. 

He towered over her with enough length to hold his body up from his forearm which was above her shoulder grounding them. With his left hand, he reached up to cup her face. She spread wider for him. Ben kept his eyes on hers as he thrusted in and out of her slowly. Breathing and moaning harmoniously into one another with each steep, each time pushing as deep as he could go, until he got to that place where her back would arch. 

“I’m not going to last much longer Rey,” he spoke brokenly in between thrusts. She wasn’t either. He sat on his knees, embracing her in a hug as he adjusted himself into a seating position with her sitting on his cock again. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and arms around his neck.

Now drenched in sweat, they moved frantically, searching for relief. With her hot breath in his ear, she whispered “I’m close, so close.” Ben picked up the pace, his slippery hands gliding up and down her back. She arched herself backwards to feel the full length of him like she had done earlier. Ben spoke her name before he spilled inside of her, the sound of her name by his voice sent Rey to her relief too. Her body tightened around him as she cried out and began to convulse. 

She collapsed on his chest where he held her for sometime until they caught their breath. 

“That was incredible Ben”  
“You’re incredible,” He said, kissing her sweet and sweaty temple.

He rolled over to his side, taking her with him. Together they basked in the moment, staring at the ceiling while Ben lightly tickled up and down Rey’s back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://youtu.be/IA_ubhYgjAc 
> 
> Little Person by Jon Brion


	4. DAY 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam Driver once said that “acting was an effort to understand one another '', and I couldn't agree more. In a way, writing is an effort to understand one another; If we can determine one’s motive, we can draw conclusions. I’m sorry about this chapter. I wrote them true to character, and as real as I could. In this chapter, I was inspired by Billie Eilish’s 2019 album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? More specifically, Goodbye by Billie Eilish. 
> 
> TLDR: Rey and Ben break free from the locker to find the terminal in complete hysteria. I’m sorry in advance, and listen to Goodbye by Billie Eilish at the end.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

**DAY 4**

**DATE: 15/03/2020**

**TIME:** **0100**

“Do you hear that?”   
“Hmm,” Rey said under her breath, her eyes still closed. 

Shadows fill and leave the locker room casted from the small window in the main door. Ben rolled Rey over, placing his sweater on her shoulders. He put his slacks back on and walked over to the door. From the small window in the frame, Ben could see some movement. While looking west, a young child ran from the east. When the child entered his line of vision, he shuddered away.

There was a great deal of noise coming from outside the locker room, that even given the circumstances, seemed out of place at this time. Paranoia was beginning to affect Ben, he reached his hand out to flip the switch, but the lights didn’t come on. His lip sank into his mouth and his heart back into his chest at the realization. 

He tiptoed to a locker where he was keeping his phone. He returned to the door where he shone his cell flashlight through the glass, but the glare was too strong to see anything. 

His phone vibrated.  
_Ben. Sunday, March 15 @ 0400, Meet at landing pad S.terminal. Stay safe xx Mom._

“Rey, it’s time to get up.”   
She smiles lightly stretching out her body.   
“I think the power is out.” Ben spoke calmly, “It’s probably nothing,” He added, comforting her, “But let’s get dressed and check it out anyways?”

Ben collected his things while Rey got dressed.

“Stay back,” Bed said, wrapping his dress coat around his fist before punching through the window.   
“BEN!”   
“How far are we going to get waiting in here?”   
He passed her a face mask, “Put this on,” He said, putting his on. “Stay with me, okay?” He added. 

She nodded. 

Hand in hand, they moved slowly down the hallway, in the direction from which they came just two days prior. Porte D roared and echoed with people that resonated to all corners of the terminal. 

Outside light flickered from opposite walls of a bay window where Rey gasped. “Look at them all,” placing her hand on the window, “There’s dozens of them.”

In fact, there were 32, each wrapped in thin polyethylene makeshift bags and sealed with duct tape. “Rey, don’t look at that right now,” Pleaded Ben, pulling her away from the window. 

The North end of the terminal was in complete hysteria. Groups of people gathered around remaining working staff. A man in a hazmat suit spoke through a megaphone, “The airplane will not land until we restore power.” 

“You're trying to lock us in here!” Shouted one. 

“We are currently restoring power. Please remain calm,” the worker said.

Another spoke up. "You keep telling us to remain calm Frills, but I don’t feel very fucking calm.”

Frills pleaded, “Please, we’re almost at the finish line.”

Another voice surfaced, “The finish line of what? MY DEATH?” 

At times like these, it was difficult to gage whether or not people were overreacting, and rightfully so. It's unfortunate that some questions don't have simple answers, and difficult to comprehend an outcome when you're in the dark, physically and figuratively speaking.

Frills was your regular Samwise Gamgee. A solid guy serving the greater good. 

"Frills!" Ben shouted.

Frills took the opportunity to leave the totem and met with Ben and Rey off to the side.

Rey spoke first,"How is Addy?" 

"Addy is dead. Along with two other of our dozen staff. You've missed quite a bit." Frills said plainly.

“Madam, madam,” A young child said, tugging at Rey’s blouse, “Je ne trouve pas ma mère.” 

"Who's this girl?" Ben asked Frills.

"Her mother died earlier today," Frills answered. The young girl couldn’t have been more than 5 years old.

"Please remain calm," Frills added. 

"Cut the shit, when is the next wave coming to fly people out?" 

Frills shook his head from side to side.

"You don't know, do you?" Asked Ben. 

Frills shook his head from side to side again. 

Rey noticed that the little girl was only wearing one shoe. She bent down to pick her just as a riot broke out. People pushed against one another, the pressure trickling to the outside of the pit where Rey stood with the young girl and Ben. With his mask still on his face he whispered into Rey’s ear, “Follow me, I know what to do.” 

Rey followed Ben away from the crowd and into a restroom hallway. “Rey, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” 

Rey placed the girl on the ground behind her. “Maybe it can wait until after?” She asked. 

Just then, two men broke free from the bathroom. 

“Go back to your country, WOP!" Said a young man with a Boston accent.   
“And you will do the same!" An older Italian man replied. The young man pushed the older man to the ground, and began punching him in the stomach.   
“HEY!” Ben screamed, pulling him off, “What are you fucking doing?”   
“My uncles dead, and it’s his fault.” 

It wasn't his fault, but fear had brought on so much racism after the announcement of the pandemic. People weren't safe in more ways than one. Hatred had flourished quietly in nations amongst ignorant communities. 

“You need to leave before I fucking crush you.” Ben said, towering over the young American, fist ready. Rey covered the young girl's eyes, but Ben didn't hit him. Instead, the young man raised his hands and slowly backed away. The Italian man rose from the ground and nodded at Ben in a thankful way before disappearing into the crowds. 

They navigate through a chaotic and strange scene. The incubation tent still stands, but the workers are not present, and the door is wide open. 

**TIME:** **0320**

Ben stoped at a quiet corner of the south east end of the terminal. Rey sits down, leaning against the wall with the young girl. She couldn’t help herself. In a way, this young girl reminded her of herself. She was only 5 when she became an orphan too. 

“Rey, I received a text from my mother today. She has arranged a small private plane to lift us from this place.” 

“Oh Ben,” she said sobbing into his arm. She was ready for her way out, “When and where?” 

“There,” He said, pointing outside to a small landing pad, “In about 40 minutes.” 

“So we just have to wait it out a little longer,” she said to the young girl. 

“We’ll sit for 5 minutes, and then find an exit, okay?” Ben told her. 

Rey nodded, she placed the girl on her lap and pointed out the window and to the landing pad spot. Rey held the girl tight, being sure to wrap both of her arms around the child. This comforted the child, who buried her little head into Rey's chest while Ben reviewed updates on his phone.

“It’s time,” Ben said, “Follow me.”

The first door Ben tried did not open. Rey spotted one across the hall, but that one was locked too. They kept looking. 

"Who is your mother?" Asked Rey. Ben replied, "She's a high ranking general in the Military."

Rey and the young girl followed Ben into a staircase where they found an emergency exit. It was dead-bolted shut at the top. After a couple minutes of tinkering and pressure, Ben broke through. 

Rey and the young girl follow him out. 

"Rey, you have to leave the child." 

"ABSOLUTELY NOT."

"You don't even know her. You could be abducting a girl right now, you get that right?"

"You heard what Frills said! Her mother passed away this morning," Rey cried out. 

"What if she's sick Rey? We have to think ethically here."

"I think we have a social obligation to look after one another, especially in times like these" She argued. 

"I have a due diligence to prevent the virus from spreading. Removing a young girl, unmasked and unidentified from a quarantine is a terrible idea," He stressed. 

"Unidentified? Ben, you and I could carry the virus right now as we speak. We are one in the same, not the opposite," Rey said, pointing to the young girl. "Are you really going to leave here without taking any one else? People are stranded Ben. You're going to use your affluence to escape, but what about the rest of them... the rest of us?" Rey added. 

"I can't." He said firmly.   
  
Her eyes began to swell, tears now falling down her face. 

"They don't have to know Ben," she said desperately, taking off her mask and placing it onto the girl, "We can tell them that she was quarantined with us." 

"Are you fucking kidding me Rey? You took off your mask? After everything we said to one another last night?"

The obnoxious sound and wind of the landing plane closed in. It was getting harder and harder to speak. Ben took a few steps backwards, reaching out his open hand to say "Join me."

Rey shouted, "If she's not coming, I'm not coming." 

"Please" Ben begged, his hands stretched out a little further. 

"Don't do this Ben. Don't go this way." 

Ben retracted his hand as the plane landed while Rey sat stubbornly with the child in her lap.

He waited only a couple minutes before turning and boarding the small plane alone, leaving Rey and the child behind. 


	5. DAY 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lonely Ben learns that he cannot escape the virus, his guilt or quiet his thoughts while Rey receives a strange letter. Warning: this chapter is sad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still inspired by my real life predicament, my foreign fiance and I are struggling with the distance and international closings. In the meantime, I have A03. I was inspired by Canadian singer songwriter Patrick Watson. More specifically, Je te laisserai des mots by Patrick Watson. This song translates to “I will leave notes below your door, below the moon, and when you are alone for a moment, kiss me, when you want, kiss me.” Please leave some love. Your feedback means a lot! Thank you kindly for reading.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

**DAY 5**

**16/03/2020**

It’s almost poetic to think that a virus, 20 to 400 nanometres in size can completely change the face of the world in a rapid trickle effect of events, and clusters. The chiro virus is a RNA virus, meaning it has ribonucleic acid as its genetic material and that each cell has individual “blueprints” which can be replicated at different rates. Virus replication rate varies on a scale of factors, but it’s safe to assume then even some of the most educated virologists on earth cannot determine Its full properties until long after a virus has affected the population. That being said, Virology has never been more underrated as it is now. 

There are two types of people. People who believe the virus is a hoax, and people who do not. In 4 short days, Ben had been both these people. 

The flight from Orly France had been the longest flight of his life. Riddled with anger and guilt, he was unable to sleep. Instead, he buried his head in his phone. He activated his social media accounts for the first time in 3 years. Struck with the realization that he never got her last name, he was not able to find anything. He was experiencing a lot of guilt and anxiety that seemed to ball at the base of his throat, unable to be swallowed, or removed. 

Closing his eyes, he was reminded of their conversations the previous night. How he foolishly stated that “He could fall in love with her”, and she responded “Who’s to say you’re not already in love with me?” He tried to shake the memory from his head, but more followed. He remembered the way she carefully washed his back in the shower, kissing his back in between, and how incredible that felt under the hot stream. Though he still wouldn’t know what to say, he desperately wanted to talk to her. 

He remembers that at one point, he had taken out his phone to show Rey a couple photos and she put in contact number in his notes. He stares at the note for a long time, writing and erasing messages until he gives up. Instead, he researches the virus.

> **Nearly 600 people isolated at OLY Airport in Orly France are still on lockdown. The WHO spoke at a press conference yesterday citing it was merely a precaution, to prevent global clustering, however, just two hours ago, Thé Santé Publique France - Département des Maladies Infectieuses made this statement:**
> 
> _We regretfully, and whole heartily apologize to all the families affected and afflicted by this terrible event. 33 people passed away in a 4 day period at the OLY Airport lockdown, including researcher Addison Crowne & two of her dedicated team members. In such little time, we have learnt that we are dealing with a more aggressive strain and progressive contraction as we had originally thought. We are working closely with the president and CEO of Orly Airport, who has vowed to fly people home at no expense, and the WHO to remain committed to the prevention of CHIROVID_19, and the protection of public health. We cannot stress how important it is to remain home, and if you have recently traveled, to self quarantine for 14 days. Thank you. There will be no questions at this time. _

He continues to read, learning that 112 people tested positive for chiro virus at OLY producing a record breaking fatality cluster of 43.89%. Upon researching worldmeters.info, he learns that the accumulative death rate rose from 2% fatality rate to an 8% fatality rate in a single week. 

**TIME 0700**

His phone vibrates. A part of Ben hoped it would Rey, but that was just wishful thinking. Instead, it was his mother. 

> _Can I get an update?_

_Hi Mom, Yes Mom._

_Boarded 0400 as planned. See you soon come lunch._

_B._

> _Thx_
> 
> _xx_

His phone dies. The rest of the flight was very uncomfortable for Ben. Having always avoided confrontation and personal relationships, he was most definitely out of his element here. He had never felt an ache quite like this one. 

He lands on a small residential pad on the outskirts from an unknown farm. Ben knows that he is in upstate New York. His mother wouldn’t have it any other way. Ben gets into a cab waiting for him to discover a barrier of plastic that separates the driver from him, along with a hand written sign that reads ‘communicate only when necessary’. With nothing to keep him busy on the ride, he watched the scenery of endless maples beginning to bud. It was almost spring. Driving up and down the small foot hills of fields, Ben noticed that they were almost green at this time of year. Something he found unusual in March, where snow still fell in this region. At least that’s how he remembered it as a child. No scenery, regardless of how nostalgic it was, could keep Ben from thinking about her. He could hear her laugh, and see her smile. How tender she had been the night before. How whole he felt then, and how empty he felt now. 

**TIME: 1230**

Ben arrived at home. The house had been in his family for years. Stationed on nearly 200 hectares of land, the very symmetrical house offered a colonial decor with clean white siding, and uniform black shutters and landscaping. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the house was immaculate as always; everything seemed to be in its right place as it had been for generations. 

When he entered the house, he was met by a housekeeper. 

“Where is she?” Ben asked. 

“The pool house,” The housekeeper replied.

He walked the stretch of the property, he noticed that not a single weed was able to break free from the path. His house, much like his life, was curated. As if every detail from this old house to his life has been purposefully picked, planned, and executed in regiment. 

When he reached the pool house, he learnt that his mother was quarantined inside. He knocked on the window frantically. She pointed to a cordless phone outside the pool house while dialling into her cellphone. 

“Mom.”

“Benny.” 

“How long have you been sick?” 

“Since Friday.” 

A distraught and shaking Ben asked “How are you doing?”

“I haven’t been able to break the fever.” She said coughing. “I’ve been so terribly worried about you. I told you,” she coughed, “I told you not to go on that business trip.”

“I didn’t know Mom.”

“Well, now we both know,” She said sitting down. 

“The airport is still on lockdown.” He stated. 

“I read that. I’m so happy you’re home. How did you manage in that environment?” 

“I met a woman.”

Leia laughed, “Only you could swindle a woman in a time like this. You are truly your father’s son. Tell me about it.”

“Well, there’s nothing to say. I’ll probably never see her again.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic, Ben.”  
  
“Says the woman in a bubble wrapped pool house.” 

Her laugh turns into coughing, but she manages to say “Don’t make me laugh, Ben,” broken in between deep breaths and coughing.

“I’m sorry Mom.” 

He waited for her to catch her breath before confiding in her. 

“The truth is, I spent the quarantine in isolation with her. And when the time came for her to come home with me, she decided to stay.”

“Why?” 

Ben replied “She stayed because she didn’t want to leave. She’d rather be cooped up with an airport of strangers than fly out with me.”

“There’s more that you’re not telling me. A mother always knows.” 

Ben didn’t speak. He just looked at her longingly. 

“Well don’t stop talking now! You know, this is the longest conversation we have had in years. It’s nice!” 

“Not really Mom, you look horrible.” 

She did look horrible. His mother had always presented herself without weakness. For the first time in Ben’s life, he worried for her.

“It’s good to have you home,” She smiled lightly.

“I’m going to rest, but before I do, I wanted to tell you something,” She moved in closer to the glass. Taking a large breath, she began, “I wish I had given more of my life to my heart, and more of my heart to you. I used work as a crutch. In the end, I want nothing to do with work. You’re the only thing that matters, and I wanted to make sure you knew that.” 

“The end?” Ben shouted, “You’re being ridiculous Mom. You have all the resources in the world. You’re going to get better.” 

“Yes, of course Ben. And when I get better, I want to talk more. Like this.”

Ben reached his hand up to the glass door. Leia raised her hand to the door and held it in place with his. 

“I love you Ben.”  
  
“I know, Mom. I know.”

He should rest in his old bed, but he can’t. For starters, he doesn’t want to be alone with his guilt. He knows there is only one place he wants to be. He returns to the house to plug in his phone, retrieve a pillow and blanket before returning to the pool house. He pulled a cushion from the outdoor furniture and dragged it to the screen doors. He planted it on deck, parallel to his mom on the opposite side of the glass door, where he finally allowed himself to fall asleep.

~

**TIME: 0440**

Rey returned to the Airport with the young girl. She had yet to process Ben’s departure and what that meant. Instead, she focused on the young girl. 

She carried the young girl to the locker room that she had shared with Ben. 

“Mon nom est Rey, quel est votre nom?”

“Amelie”

“Parlez-vous English?” Rey Asked.

“Yes.” Amelie replied.

“Great,” Rey smiled, reaching down to lightly pinch a cheek. I have some snacks here, are you hungry?”

Amelie nodded. They snacked on some granola until the young girl fell asleep on Rey’s lap. Rey followed suit and embraced her little cuddle buddy. 

**TIME: 0800**

“Frills!” Rey squeals when she finally sees him, “Please do you have news for us?” 

“Yes, I do. The generators kicked in, as you can tell. And the results will be in my hands within the hour. Aircrafts are preparing and planning their departures.”

“That’s great news Frills!” She said, placing the young girl on an airport chair and pulling Frills to the side. “What will come of the girl?” 

“We’ve managed to get ahold of her grandmother who is able to look after her,” Frills replied.

“Great. Thank you Frills.”

“No thank you, I really appreciate you looking after her. With so much going on here, It was difficult to manage every little thing," Frills said looking at the girl. 

“The people were frightening last night…” Rey stated. 

“The public doesn’t always respond the way I wish they would, but we’ve managed to isolate the virus. Most of the people here get to go home. Today.”

A worker approached Frills handing him a filing folder. 

“Is that what I think it is Frills?”

“Keep your voice down! Give me a minute.” He said, sorting through the documents. 

“Strange…”

“What’s strange.”

“Your file comes with a sealed letter. And this,” He said, passing a piece of documentation that proved her approval of travel. 

Rey imagined it was a letter of apology from Ben. 

“And the girl?” Rey Asked.

“Let me check.” Frills, like the rest of the people here, was completely disheveled, yet somehow optimistic, “She tested negative.” 

Their conversation at begun to attract attention. Rey hadn't noticed at first, but they were completely surrounded by other travelers. 

Frills addressed the public. 

“All guests quarantined in the north side of the south terminal tested negative for the virus. We want to take a moment of silence to the 33 people who lost their lives to the virus over the last 50 hours.” 

The silence was heavy for Rey. She though about Addy.e after a minute or two, Frills continued “Four planes will be arriving within the next 4-6 hours. One to Calgary international Airport, one to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), one to Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG), and one to Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport. Those that live here in Europe will be escorted by Bus and can arrange for a pick up along the route posted here,” He said lifting a piece of paper. “Please form a line. From there, My team and I can assess your documents and set you up. You’re all going home!” 

The people roared in excitement. Rey couldn’t tell if she was hypersensitive, but it was odd to go from silent condolences to cheering. 

“You get to go home!” Rey said to the young girl, who smiled gently. Rey will never forget the day she found out she was adopted, and realized she would finally have a place to call home. Home had always been a strange concept for Rey. She was grateful for her adoptive parents, but remained curious about her birth mother. 

Rey found her old suitcase and pulled out her phone. She handed it, along with the charger for the young girl to play with. She opened the letter that Frills had given her. 

> _This is a confidential letter for Rey S. Taylor,_
> 
> _Dear Rey S. Taylor,_
> 
> _This is a message from Public Health Canada. We are happy to inform you that your test results regarding CHIRO_VID19 came back negative, however we found some interesting anomalies in your sample, therefore you must visit promptly to discuss our findings._
> 
> _Once you arrive in Calgary, a ride will be waiting there to escort you to a temporary facility we have set up at a private Lab at The University of Calgary. There you will meet with myself and my team to further discuss this matter._
> 
> _Kind regards,_
> 
> _Maz Mallot, PhD._
> 
> _Virologist | Public Health Canada_
> 
> _403-955-0221 ext. 214_

Times were strange indeed. Rey wondered how the details of her anomalies. She had lots to think of; How she would graduate, who she would check in on when she returned home and this strange letter. Instead, she thought of Ben. How Ben had delicately washed her hair in the shower the day they made love. How she had promised that she would stay with him, no matter what and that she promised “to never take off a medical mask in the height of a pandemic ever again.” She knew that she broke her promise, but she was desperate and truly believed that Ben would see beyond that and dismiss it, like he had done when they were first quarantined. Most of all, Rey wondered if she would ever see or hear from again and If she even wanted to see or hear from again.


	6. DAY 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey learns that she is 1 in a trillion while Ben deals with his anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by real life legend Henrietta Lacks: The Immoral Woman. I wanted to take a moment to highlight how important and crucial her genetic material is for modern medicine. For me, if the force existed in real life, it exists at this capacity. I hope that makes sense. I’m sorry this story is so angst. I guess I’m just angst. Also Inspired by Beck's Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

**DAY 6**   
**17/03/2020**

**TIME: 0900**  
She didn’t realize at first how difficult it would be to enter an airport again. Her heart had been racing since the last announcement to land. Rey had no idea how the trauma from the previous days would stay with her for a lifetime. 

A curious man, dressed as if he was about to embark on a backpacking trip held a piece of cardboard that read REY S. TAYLOR. He looked innocently enough, soft around the centre and younger than Rey. 

“Wow, it’s really you. You’re younger than I thought.” 

She reached out her hand to shake his. 

“Oh, I’m sorry” he said, taken aback, “The best practice is this,” He said offering an elbow. It was a strange way to say hello. Rey felt silly tapping her elbow to his. 

“My name is Cristopher Craig Cornelius Porter Oliver.” 

“Wow, that’s a mouthful.” Rey said, pleasantly surprised with this new person. 

“3CP0, that’s what they call me. It’s kind of a joke, see because my initials are C.C.C.P.O,” He said, “And because I like data.” 

“I get it,” Rey said, “Do you know what this is all about?” 

“Well of course, but I have been instructed to allow Maz explain it.”

  
The relief Rey had when she set foot back in Canada was paramount. She followed 3P30 from arrivals to his car waiting outside. He tossed the sign into the trunk of an old silver Toyota and sat next to him in the front seat. They were met at the entrance point of the airport by a stop point where a significant amount of security waited. He passed them a ticket, their identification and a statement from public health. 

“We need Rey’s clearance as well.”

The suitcase was in the backseat. Without thinking, Rey reached for the handle to open the door. 

“MISS, stay in the car,” One guard spoke as three guards, all wearing face masks, moved in uniform closer to the car.   
Rey retracted her hand. Trauma. 

“Where are the documents?”

She froze. “Your documents?” they asked again. 

3P30 spoke up “They must be in the suitcase in the backseat. Give me a moment, and I can gather it.” 3P30 leaned into Rey, “Please tell me you have them.” 

She nodded and stretched her body over the armrest to retrieve it from the front pocket and handed them to a window worker who grabbed them in gloves.

“Sorry about that Rey,” the window worker spoke, “It's merely a precaution.”

“Thank you,” Rey said, as he passed the documents back.

“Have a nice day,” 3P30 said.

“You, too,” The window worker spoke. 

3P30 spoke the entire time, while Rey listened as best she could. Rey learnt that he was an intern, currently working on his research for his PhD, and that they would be at the University within the hour. That’s about all Rey could retain. She was famished, and overtired. 

Situated close to the Rocky Mountains, the University of Calgary is a public research university. Home to the Clara Christie Centre for Mouse Genomics (CCCMG), a Embryonic Stem Cell/Targeted Mutagenesis Facility. Often spoken as a community of pioneers and discoverers, University of Calgary was ranked globally. 

Upon arrival, C3P0 led Rey to Maz, who was waiting. 

“Rey, the woman we are all waiting to meet. So nice to meet you.” She nodded from a distance. “Can we get you anything?”

“Actually, Yes. I would kill for a warm meal."

“Of course, how could we forget? Follow me to the lunch room.”

Rey followed behind. The facility was sterile and cold.

“We have some bean salad, leftover lentil soup. And all sorts of snacks,” She opened the cupboards. “We can always order anything in for you as well.”

“No, no. This will be great,” Rey replied as C3P0 heated up some soup and prepared a serving of bean salad for her.

“It’s so incredible to meet you,” Mazz started.

Rey was still absolutely puzzled on why she was here. “Okay. I need to know what this is about,” Rey asked.

“Rey, are you familiar with Henrietta Lacks?” Maz asked.

“No,” Rey said bluntly. 

She was known as the immortal woman,” CP30 stated.

Rey set the soup down and began on the bean salad, “Huh?”

“Imagine something small enough to float on a particle of dust that holds the keys to understanding cancer, virology and genetics. That exists and in lab grown cells called HeLa, named after Henrietta Lacks,” Maz spoke, “See, her cells replicated at a significant rate, allowing researchers to start a cell line from her samples by isolating one specific cell and repeatedly dividing it. The same cell could then be used for conducting experiments,” She spoke slowly and clearly. “The ability to rapidly reproduce HeLa cells in a laboratory setting has led to many important breakthroughs in biomedical research. This finding was one of the most—”

“—Important findings of medical history!” C3P0 piped in. 

You could tell that Maz was used to his behaviour. She lightly nudged his back

“What does this have anything to do with me?” Rey asked. 

Maz broke into a huge smile. “Rey, upon a single swab, we were able to isolate your cells after witnessing their reaction to the chiro virus. Your cells did the most incredible thing. They attacked the virus at first hand, entering and dividing the virus cells until there were no more remaining.”

“—At a rapid rate” C3P0 interrupted. “What does that mean exactly?” Rey asked.

“It means that your cells are 1 trillion times more responsive, and protective than any other human cell. It means you have super cells.” C3P0 spoke passionately.

“It means that your cells could hold the answers to many cures,” Maz stated.

“Oh.” Rey said, a single bean dropped from her mouth and hit the floor. 

This was all too strange for Rey. Just last week, she was struggling to keep up with her lectures, and now she’s a guest at the University of Calgary. 

“Wait, let’s go over this again,” Rey stated, “When you picked my nose with that giant q-tip, you discovered I have super cells, via my super boogers.” 

Maz laughed. “We discovered that you were both a positive and negative carrier.” Maz stated. 

“And you collected some of my cells?” 

“Thousands.” C3P0

“From my nose?”

“Oh course Rey, where else?” CP30 laughed, jestering at Maz. 

“Under the microscope, we watched your cells invade, divide and re-write virus cells at a rapid rate. Faster than any stem cell we have ever encountered.” 

“Okay...” Rey responded. 

“You’re one in 10 trillion Rey!” C3P0 shouted.

“This is all a lot to process,” Rey replied

“Understandable,” Maz spoke. 

“I would like to go home,” Rey admitted. 

“First, let us take some blood samples, along with a skin sample. It will only take a moment,” C3P0 added. 

“Sure,” Rey said, finishing her soup. “I need to speak to my family first.”

“Absolutely,” Maz said, “We’ll be ready for you in the Lab at the end of the hall. Please see C3P0 prior to entering the lab.” 

Rey called her adoptive mother first. Mae didn’t answer, she tried her adoptive father, but Ken didn’t answer either. Her adoptive parents hadn’t been the most active parents. As philanthropists, her and her adoptive siblings were a small piece of their life. 

She called Finn, her adoptive brother. 

“Rey, holy. Fucking. Shit.” 

“Hi Finn.

“Fuck buddy, we were so worried about you.”

“Mae and Ken?” 

“Yes, who else?” Finn replied.

“I just called them but they didn’t answer,” Rey softly, obviously disappointed.

“Like you, they were stranded. They’re in Cuba, waiting on a flight into Canada.” 

“Oh.”

“Where are you?” Finn asked. 

“I’m at U of Calgary.”

“What the hell are you doing there?”

“It’s a bit of a long story. Can you pick me up?” Rey asked.

“Yes, Please. It’s been hell quarantined into the apartment.” Finn replied.

“You’re quarantined into the apartment?”

“Well yes, most of the world is quarantined right now. Haven't you been keeping up on everything?”

“Not really,” Rey admitted. She had been too busy with Ben. 

“We have lots to catch up on. I can be there in less than an hour. Say 10, 10:30?” Finn said. 

“Perfect. See you then,” 

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

While waiting for Maz and C3PO to set up, Rey’s phone vibrated.

Unknown Number: Hello?

She forgot that she had left on read notifications, but she knew it was Ben. 

B: Rey, please. I need to know that you are okay.

 **R: I’m fine.**

B: Where are you? If you never want to talk to me again, that's fine. 

But first I need to be reassured that you're okay. 

**R: Why do you care where I am?**

B: You’re all I can think about. 

Rey didn’t know how to respond. Instead, she turned her attention to the lab. It took only a moment for Maz to harvest a skin sample while C3P0 took her blood. He handed her a juice box afterwards. “For your blood sugar,” He stated. “Thanks,” She replied. 

“My ride is going to be here shortly. Is that all?” 

“We would like to contact you over the next couple days to follow up.”

“Okay. That sounds Fine,” Rey replied. 

“C3P0 will walk you out.”

Rey gathered her things. “Thank you for coming in,” Maz spoke, “And please take care of yourself.” 

Now that Maz had mentioned her supercells, Rey couldn’t help but reflect. She had never had a flu or cold. When all her friends caught the chicken pox, she had somehow avoided it. Her and Finn had shared a room until they were 16. He had always fallen ill, but Rey had never. 

It dawned upon Rey that she may have always been different. The thought should be comforting. Rey should feel like 1 in 1 trillion. Instead, she feels lonely. She thought of Ben. She had forgiven him already. Knowing that he did what he thought was right, and she had done what she thought was right, but just because she had forgiven him does not mean that she was ready to accept him into her heart again. She was still decompressing the whole experience. Still, Rey’s attention turned back to Ben. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him either, and that meant something. 

**R: University of Calgary.**

_He responded instantly._

B: Surely, homework could wait? 

**R: No, it’s not like that. I have to go.**

B: Thank you.  
For responding. 

**TIME: 1100**

  
Finn arrived before she could coordinate a response, embracing her in a giant hug.   
“Girl, have you forgotten to eat this week? You seem smaller,” Finn commented

“I haven’t been very hungry,” She admitted. 

“75.4, can you believe it?” 

“Believe what?” Rey asked.

“The gas prices!” 

“Oh yeah, that’s crazy.” Rey replied. 

“Everything is crazy Rey. Everyone is layed off, or working from home. There’s no toilet paper left in Canada. Artists, like myself are basically out of work indefinitely, until this blows over.” He said, switching lanes. 

“I need to know about the airport lockdown. Can you tell me more?”

“Maybe tomorrow. I’m going to sleep now Finn. Wake me up when we’re home.”

“Sure thing, Rey.”  


~

**SAME DAY**   
**TIME: 1000**

After Ben woke with a stiff back late afternoon yesterday, His mother had told him to make himself something to eat and get some real rest. He wanted to protest, but she was right, as she always was. 

Ben woke in his pale blue childhood room. It included a sitting area and a small terrace. His mother had kept all of his lego creations which still displayed on the shelves as if he had created them yesterday. He's in his mid 30's now and finds it bizarre that his room is the same as it always was. He layed in bed for some time to reminisce. A single photograph was framed on his desk; the only keepsake he had of his father. It wasn’t candid. All dressed in matching clothing, his father sat on a couch, his arms on the edging with Leia by his side, and a young boy sitting between them. He wasn’t smiling. To this day, he only smiled on rare occasions. Today was not one of those occasions. 

Sitting up, he thought of Rey. He reached for his phone, opened up her contact info and typed I’m sorry. After a moment, he erased it, and typed **hello?**

The message instantly flagged as read. 

**B: Rey, please. I need to know that you are okay.**

R: I’m fine. 

**B: Where are you?If you never want to talk to me again, that's fine.**   
**But first I need to be reassured that you're okay.**

R: Why do you care where I am? 

**B: You’re all I can think about.**

After over 20 minutes, she didn’t respond. Ben took to the shower to clear his mind. Under the stream, he found himself thinking of her. He thought of her hot breath in his ear, and the delicate way she had said his name before she came. Ben reached for himself. With a tight squeeze, he replayed the way she had touched him, scene by scene in his head. His guilt broke his concentration in between strokes, but he managed to find her again in his head. His thoughts took him to the afternoon after the morning they fucked. His eyes still closed under the stream of hot water, he slowed his hand at the thought of her kissing his back. Unable to continue, he let go of himself and lifted his chin up to allow the pressured water on his face. Desperate for relief, he sat on the stone shower ground, with his back against the wall and buried his face in his hands. He hoped that he would be able to cry. But it was impossible. Like smiles, tears were rare for Ben. He hadn’t cried since he was a child. As an adult, sadness was delivered in body aches, anger and fatigue. 

When he dressed after the shower, his phone vibrated. He dived for it. 

R: University of Calgary. 

**He responded instantly.**   
**B: Surely, homework could wait?**

R: No, it’s not like that. I have to go. 

**B: Thank you.**   
**For responding.**

~ 

**TIME: 1100**

Leia wasn't getting any better. She wasn’t able to greet him today. The nurse reassured him, “She just needs some rest, I’m sure she’ll be up for a visit tomorrow.” Ben couldn’t help but notice that his mother started to mirror the old Italian man Rey had taken her mask off for. Coughing heavily, and glistening from never ending sweat. 

Quarantined at home, Ben tried to return some work calls and complete correspondence, but found it very difficult to focus. Instead, he thought of her. He ventured from the study to the sitting music room, and sat on the bench where his family mini grand piano stood. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember his lessons. His fingers placed lightly on the surface of the keys, they broke free to begin Clair de Lune, by Claude Debussy. Stumbling on the 6th bar, he started from the beginning. The movement of his hands became muscle memory as he moved from one bar to the next. 

The old house resonated with Debussy. Ben played it again, this time, with his eyes closed, allowing the movement to freeform. He stumbled again, this time he wasn’t able to start again. Instead he stood up, lifting the piano bench up over his head and smashing it on the ground. Taking pleasure with each plunge, he destroyed the bench. He continued to smash it until he was left with a small piece of wood in his hands. When he was finally finished, he noticed a housekeeper watching. 

“I’m going into town,” Ben said panting.

**TIME: 1900**

R: I need some space. I’m not saying I never want to hear from you again. I just need some space and time. I’m sorting a lot out. 

His heart both sank and rose from the response. At least she said something. 

**B: Anything.**   
**I’d do anything for you.**

R: Well, not anything…

_Ouch. I guess he deserved that._


	7. DAY 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben finds a way to express himself to Leia and Rey acts as an alluring distraction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salty & Sad. The salty was heavily inspired by Clair De Lune remake by Flight Facilities & Christine Hoberg alongside Richard Siken’s poem The Language of Birds. The sad was inspired by Patrick Watson's The Great Escape. If you like Patrick Watson, he does a live show and takes requests via instagram every day. 
> 
> Wishing the world glad tidings in future. Be safe, take care and be kind and considerate out there!

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

**DAY 12**

**25/03/2020**

****

There are risks to being isolated. People need interaction and community. Well, most people need it, Ben on the other hand, thrived in this environment. Work from home occupied significantly less time than work abroad, and he didn’t have to make small talk anymore. Small talk was something he absolutely loathed. In his free time, he pined for Rey and tried to spend time with his mother. ****

Leia's health was in decline. The doctor had visited yesterday to inform both Ben and the medical staff that her severe pneumonia will require more oxygen and ventilation. Now, her head rests in an enclosed plastic helmet with constant oxygen. She hasn’t been able to speak since the first night that he got home. The good news is, now that the risk can be mostly contained in her new ventilated snoopy cap, the medical staff opened the screen door in the afternoons where Ben sat outside and read aloud to Leia. ****

Today, he would read Richard Siken’s _The Language of the Birds_. It was Leia’s favourite. Siken was no doubt reeling with talent. Ben preferred his darker work, but it made sense to him why Leia loved this piece of literature so much. It was light and fluffy. Leia’s dedication and service to work and government was heavy, so light and fluffy literature was a necessity. 

He started,

> 1
> 
> A man saw a bird and found him beautiful. The bird had a song inside him, and feathers. Sometimes the man felt like the bird and **sometimes the man felt like a stone** —solid, inevitable—but mostly he felt like a bird, or that there was a bird inside him, or that something inside him was like a bird fluttering. This went on for a long time. ****

He stopped when a single Harlequin duck landed in the pool cover a few meters away. A rarity in this region. Birds had been one of his father’s secret hobbies. There was a time in Ben’s life when he could remember canoeing with his father on a small lake outside of Syracuse, NY. where his father nearly flipped the canoe at the sight of two Harlequin ducks. Ben took a moment to admire the bird. He thought of his father, a man he resented more than ever and then read another verse, ****

> 2
> 
> A man saw a bird and wanted to paint it. The problem, if there was one, was simply a problem with the question. Why paint a bird? Why do anything at all? Not how, because hows are easy—series or sequence, one foot after the other—but existentially why bother, what does it solve? ****
> 
> And just because you want to paint a bird, do actually paint a bird, it doesn't mean you've accomplished anything. Who gets to measure the distance between experience and its representation? Who controls the lines of inquiry? We do. Anyone can. ****
> 
> Blackbird, he says. So be it, indexed and normative. But it isn't a bird, it's a man in a bird suit, blue shoulders instead of feathers, because he isn't looking at a bird, real bird, as he paints, **he is looking at his heart, which is impossible.** ****

Ben paused at this moment to dwell on _‘he is looking at his heart, which is impossible.’_ Was it impossible to look at his heart because he didn’t have one? Or impossible metaphysically? He felt a pain in his chest, bringing his hand to his chest for relief, he thought of her. _Sweet Rey_. If it was ever impossible to look at his heart it would have been in the days he spent with her. 

Ben continued, 

> 3 ****
> 
> They looked at the animals. They looked at the walls of the cave. This is earlier, these are different men. They painted in torchlight: red mostly, sometimes black—mammoth, lion, horse, bear—things on a wall, in profile or superimposed, dynamic and alert. ****
> 
> They weren't animals but they looked like animals, enough like animals to make it confusing, meant something but the meaning was slippery: it wasn't there but it remained, looked like the thing but wasn't the thing—was a second thing, following a second set of rules—and it was too late: their power over it was no longer absolute. ****
> 
> What is alive and what isn't and what should we do about it? Theories: about the nature of the thing. And of the soul. **Because people die. The fear: that nothing survives. The greater fear: that something does.** ****
> 
> The night sky is vast and wide. ****
> 
> They huddled closer, shoulder to shoulder, painted themselves in herds, all together and apart from the rest. They looked at the sky, and at the mud, and at their hands in the mud, and their dead friends in the mud. This went on for a long time. ****

Despite the plastic snoopy cap, Leia was paying some attention. Ben half heartedly smiled for her as he continued, ****

> 4 ****
> 
> To be a bird, or a flock of birds doing something together, one or many, starling or murmuration. **To be a man on a hill, or all the men on all the hills, or half a man shivering in the flock of himself. These are some choices.** ****
> 
> The night sky is vast and wide. ****
> 
> A man had two birds in his head—not in his throat, not in his chest—and the birds would sing all day never stopping. The man thought to himself, One of these birds is not my bird. The birds agreed. ****

Though he had heard this poem many times, it is as if he is hearing it for the first time. Ben took notice when Leia brought her hand to her heart. It’s a simple gesture, but It means a great deal to Ben. They shared a moment of silence together before Leia returned to rest. 

‘ _Half a man shivering in the flock of himself’_ stayed with him for a long time while he sat outside the screen door in silence and watched the duck clean itself in the garden. 

He thought of Rey. It had been 6 days since she had sent him a message. He wondered if he had become the man shivering in the flock of himself when he boarded his plane home. Most of all, he thought about her well being. He had curated and written a handful of responses to Rey. He sent none of them. Instead, they stay hidden on his google drive waiting for her to text him back. Ben is riddled with guilt and fear; guilt that he felt for Rey, and fear he felt for his mother. 

_The chirovirus has changed the face of the world in a way people are just starting to understand. The majority of countries struggled to provide personal protective equipment to necessary workers, and had limited respirators and icu beds. In a matter of 3 weeks, the chirovirus has spread from 95,000 cases to over 500,000 cases worldwide, and that number hardly reflects the significant amount of cases worldwide that could not be recorded. Even people with symptoms are asked to stay home and self quarantine instead of coming into the hospital to test for the virus. In actuality, there aren't enough tests for entire populations anyways as this pandemic has been a massive strain on every health system. The most alarming facts are that of the 145,000 cases which had an outcome, there was a 16% fatality rate; a rate that has grown from under 2% to 16% in only 2 weeks. It’s not just affecting the elderly, it can affect nearly anyone. The United States is in a state of emergency, though they haven’t declared it. New York’s case numbers climb and surpass stats worldwide as the fastest growing hub of clusters in the world._

Ben fiddled with his phone. Enough reddit, enough news, enough was enough. ****

 **B:** ~~**How are you?**~~

~~**Hi** ~~

**Thinking of you.**

  
R: I think of you too.

Please tell me that you are washing your hands, and wearing a mask when you’re at the shops. 

And that you’re not in the city. 

Are you in the city?

The messages came in all at once. Ben allowed himself to feel smitten at worried Rey, who was on the opposite side of the continent. 

**B:** **No, I’m upstate.**

 **Are you still mad at me?** ****

R: I think so.

But I still care about you, I can’t help that. 

**B:** **How are you?**

R: How are you? ****

The messages came in at the same time. ****

R: You first. ****

**B:** **I’m okay. My mom is sick. I think she’s doing better. You?**

R: Aww, Ben. What’s wrong with her? ****

He wanted to tell her everything, but in a strange way he wanted to conceal it too. ****

**B:** **She’s sick… like the rest of NY.** ****

R: Oh Ben. I’m so sorry. ****

 **B:** **It’s Okay. She’s in good spirits, and we have equipment and help.**

**Enough about me. Please.**

**How are you?** ****

He was nearly folded in half staring at his phone in awe. With every …, his anticipation grew. After a couple minutes of …, and then it disappearing, Ben was growing impatient. 

******B:** **Come on girl.**

 **You can tell me anything.** ********

R: I may or may not be a superhero. ****

 **B:** **…**

 **I need more context.** ********

R: My swab was flagged at OLY.

At University of Calgary, I learnt from Public Health Canada that my cells have interesting abilities. Apparently, my super cells invade and rewrite virus cells. I’m currently working with a small team to give samples and blood for research purposes. ****

**B:** **Are you sure? This seems far fetched.** ****

R: I didn’t believe it at first either. Dr. M had to show me under a microscope. ****

 **B:** **Wow. That’s incredible.** ****

R: Yes and No. My roommates keep telling me to get a lawyer, but I just want to help people. Also, not be in the news. ****

 **B:** **I bet you’d look real pretty in the News, like a real angel coming to earth to save us all.** ****

R: Smooth. ****

 **B:** **Your friends are right. Haven’t you heard of Henrietta Lacks?** ****

R: Yes. ****

 **B:** **Well then, you know what to do.** ****

R: Maybe. Maybe I don’t care about money? ****

 **B:** **It’s not just about money. It’s about control.**

**Ensuring that the research will be in the right hands.**

**It’s possible for 3rd parties to copyright the findings if you do not own them legally. Which would keep your super cells away from people who might really need them.** ****

R: I never thought of it like that. ****

 **B:** **You need to think like this.**

**Rey, you are too nice for this world.**

**People aren’t nice.**

**I’m not even fucking nice.** ****

R: Don’t say that.

I wouldn’t have fallen for you if you weren’t nice. 

Ben dropped his phone. It hit the stone path heavy. He wiped it off and read the message over and over again before responding. 

**B:** **Fallen for me?** ****

R: Why else would I be talking to you? ****

 **B:** **Can I see you?** ****

R: How? ****

 **B:** **However you let me. Send me something. Show me something.** ****

R: If you do something for me,

I will do something for you. ****

 **B:** **Anything.** ****

R: Go tell your sick mother that you love her. Some people need words of affirmation. Not you, but some people.

 **B:** **Ugh, Rey.**

**I don’t even know how to pronounce that word. Lol.**

R: Very funny. 

It’s a give and take world. ****

Ttyl Ben <3 **  
**

They had touched base on love when they were quarantined together. Ben had admitted that he wasn’t sure if he had even been in love. It was only a week or so ago he told Rey that he wasn’t sure if he even loved his parents. He knew better now. He loved his mother, but the word was certainly difficult to say and the emotion was challenging to convey. ****

He left his mother to rest and returned to the house in search for a box labeled Ben. He searched his room. In the walk-in closet, he found a box labeled Ben but it just had some old textbooks and photographs. This wasn’t what he was looking for. The box would have been labeled Ben, in Ben’s childish handwriting. It will be an old filing cabinet box. After pulling box after box from the stash in the closet, he finally found it.

Sitting on the ground with his back leaning against the wall, he opened the box. ****

It was a beacon of memories. Ben found it difficult to keep many memories. He focused more on the current and now. Upon opening the box, he didn’t expect to find so much joy. He turned letters from Santa and the tooth fairy over, laughing at science fair hypothesis testing reports, report cards, and small lego figurines. Leia had kept so much. ****

At the bottom he found a valentine he wrote for his mom. It was in the shape of a heart, and folded in half in construction paper painted red that read ‘your the best’ on one side, and ‘i love you mom’ on the other. ****

_Jackpot._ ****

He took a photo of the craft and sent it to Rey. ****

**B:** **Going to tell her in my own way.** ****

R: As you should.

Cute Ben. Pretty Cute. 

He ventured outside. At this time, the patio door was closed to the pool house and his mother rested inside. All Ben could hear was the faint sound of supporting machines beeping. He placed the card in the door and tucked it into the frame so that she could see it when she woke. ****

Rey had this effect on Ben. She challenged him to do things he wouldn’t have done otherwise. Not because he wasn’t able, but because he didn’t understand the importance of it. Rey had a different perspective on life, one that Ben valued and secretly envied. He wanted to do her good, make her proud, but he also wanted to show his mother how he felt. He does love her, very much, he’s just not good at words. ****

Rey sent Ben a photo. She was laying on her bed with her arm above her head wearing only one thing: Ben’s sweater from the airport. The photo sent Ben straight to his room where he could admire it in peace. Her bed was a mess of different patterned quilts and pillows. It was as Ben imagined it: colourful, and sloppy. He did always have an excellent talent to read people. Her hair was lightly crowned around her head. Her face without any makeup, just her shiny lips surrounding her lightly agape mouth in the most seductive way. ****

 **B:** **Gorgeous.** ****

R: Show me something. ****

Shit. Ben wasn’t accustomed to selfies. 

**B:** **I don’t take photos.** ****

R: Are you going to leave me hanging? ****

 **B:** **Never again.** ****

Ben looked around his room frantically. Looking up the ceiling, he located two handles on a beam. He took off his shirt. Wearing only a pair of jeans now, he set up the camera on a nearby desk and started a video. He walked from the desk to the centre of his old bedroom and leapt into the air to grab the handles. From there, he crossed his legs behind his body and pulled his giant body up to complete a few pull ups. Not wanting to stop, he adjusted his legs in a sitting position and completed a few more before gracefully dropping to the ground. He wiped his hands together and then on his jeans, and walked over to the phone. He leaned down into the frame and moved his hands through his hair to tuck it behind his ears before smiling and cutting the video. Without watching it, he sent it to her. ****

R: Oh my god.

Take off your pants and do it again? ****

 **B:** **It’s a give and take world, Rey.** ****

He was smug after writing that. He loved wordplay, and how he could use her words against her. ****

He received a video shortly after. Still in her bed. Rey was flipped on her stomach now and the phone was propped on a pillow. She traced her lips with her middle and index finger slowly before sucking down on them. She bit into her fingers and smiled in a playful way and the video ended. ****

 **B:** **That’s hot.** ****

Ben started recording. He positioned the camera a little closer than before. He unbuttoned his jeans and let them fall to the ground out of the frame. He wanted the sound of his belt and the weight of his pants hitting the floor to tease Rey. He moved past the frame as if he wasn’t recording. He ran his fingers through his hair until it was all neatly tucked behind his ears. His excitement from Rey’s video showed. He was engorged as he leapt again for the handles the second time. This time, he pulled up and down slowly, moving his back in and out of position, before dropping to the ground in a giant thumb. He hid himself from the camera as he walked into the frame to the video. ****

R: I’m touching myself.

 **B:** **Show me.** ****

She sent another short video. She was on her back again. The frame was only on her face, but she drew around her lips as she had done earlier, and slowly moved her fingers from her mouth, down and over _his_ sweater until it was out of the frame. When she reached herself, she closed her eyes as she let out a small moan. 

Ben was now fully erect, he reached for himself again and again as hit play again and again. ****

**B:** **I’m touching myself for you.** ****

R: Show me. ****

He propped his phone on his desk and took a shot of his midsection with his cock in his hands. ****

R: I want you to say my name when you come.

 **B:** **I will.** ****

R: I want to see it & I need to hear it. 

Ben started another video. This time, he propped his phone above his monitor so his giant body could fit in the frame. He sat in an old wooden chair. With each tug, he grew closer and closer to his relief. He arched his chin into the air, which allowed some natural light to reflect off his chest, neck and arms, which tightened whenever he was close. Finally, he hit his limit, he spoke her name while he spilled all over the desk and his hands. After he caught his breath, he slowly moved his hand up and down his cock now covered in his own cum whispering her name again. ****

R: Holy fucking shit. I came. ****

 **B:** **I came so hard.** ****

R: I really needed that. The world is so weird right now. ****

 **B:** **I know. I hardly recognize myself most days.** ****

R: Maybe that’s a good thing? ****

 **B:** **I think you’re the good thing, Rey.** ****

R: I think your bedroom needs updating. ****

 **B:** **HA!** **This is my childhood room.** ****

R: I figured.

I gotta go. I’m meeting some people virtually.

 **B:** **Oh.** **Okay.**

**Talk to you later?**

R: ttyl

~ 

“Ben, come quick! Your mother wants to see you.” ****

Ben woke and rose from his bed in a hurry, he grabbed a sweater and ran barefoot from the house to the pool house. ****

All the health workers were inside but one. ****

“Put this on. I’ll tape you up.”  
  
Ben slipped on a suit but it wasn’t big enough, the arms tore as he tried to pull it over his shoulders. ****

“FUCK!” He swore, ripping it off he demanded, “Get me another.”  
  
“I’m sorry Mr. Solo, that’s the only size we have.” ****

“Are you fucking kidding me?” ****

The beeps grew louder as the health workers frantically moved around Leia's bed. Ben ran from the main entrance to the screen door and pounded on the glass. The workers rolled Leia from the centre of the room to the window.  
  
Leia, still enclosed in a breathing apparatus lifted her arm. Her arm shook as it rose slowly until her fingers emerged from her fist. She pointed to the valentine Ben had tucked into the door. Ben placed both his hands on the glass door, and nodded at her. She drew her shaking hand from the pointing position to her heart and blinked very hard. Ben could see the tears rolling down her face. He placed his forehead to the glass in an attempt to get closer to her. The moment didn’t last, she fell into a heavy cough. Ben could see her heart rate increasing rapidly before falling low from the equipment. She coughed until she couldn’t breathe anymore and her heart rate disappeared. When she flatlined, a medical professional made an incision on her chest, and attached a trach tube, but it was too late. She was gone. ****

“I want to see her!” He shouted from outside the door.

He was met by a medical worker. “I’m sorry Mr. Solo, she’s gone.” ****

“I need to see her.”  
  
“You cannot enter the pool house without proper gear. I’m sorry. You have to remain out here.” ****

Ben fell to his knees. It had been years since he had felt such pain. It overcame him as he sobbed outside. Coming up for breath from his head being buried in his hands, he noticed the single harlequin duck had returned, as if his father was there and with them in her last moments. It may have been bizarre, but the thought of his father being there, in any capacity, comforted Ben. ****

Unable to touch his mother, and grieve properly, Ben sat on his knees for the entirety of post death clean up. He watched as the workers cleared the area. After some time, they wrapped his mother in plastic before taping her closed. It was horrifying, even more so than when he had seen the bodies at the airport just last week. ****

A new reality set in. His mother was gone, truly gone. A proper funeral would be impossible. In fact, the body is now the property of the CDC. The very thought was surreal. ****

“Mr. Solo. It’s time to go. We are arranging a pick up shortly, in the meantime, maybe you should go inside?”

He ignored her. Instead. He stayed on the deck outside the glass doors and texted Rey. ****

**B:** **She’s gone Rey.**

**She’s really gone.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imagine a world where we are unable to fully grieve the ones we lose? How can you say goodbye without holding a hand? We live in that world right now. People all over the world are losing their loved ones in similar situations. My heart goes out to all of those people. Stay strong, we will get through this.


	8. DAY 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey tries to comfort Ben and herself in these uncertain times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by real life and fiction, this chapter is definitely a reflection of the current and uncertain times and how Rey is managing throughout. Not gonna lie, I’m starting to space cadet over here. Sometimes things are totally fine, and other times, I’m losing my mind. Like all my writing, I was inspired by music. Though it isn’t the saddest song in the world or anything, MGMT - Time to Pretend has been giving me mad feels. “I'm feelin' rough I'm feelin' raw I'm in the prime of my life”, & “Life can always start up anew, everything must run its course”.

**QUARANTINE**  
by: OAK SAVI

DAY 13

**DATE:**   
**26/03/2020**

****

  
Rey woke in the middle of the night to her phone vibrating. Before the pandemic, Rey was a heavy sleeper, oftentimes sleeping until noon. More recently, Rey found herself waking up constantly and wondered if she was ever really asleep, or ever really awake. 

B: She’s gone. She’s really gone. 

She sat up, turned on the lamp to read it again to ensure that she read it right the first time. She scrambled for the right words to speak at this moment, without much thought, she sent the first thing that came to mind. 

**R: Oh Ben. I’m so sorry**

The movement and light had woken up Finn who was sleeping next to her. He had been co-sleeping with her since she returned. Rey had been experiencing night terrors since the airport incident. 

“Are you okay Rey?” Finn asked. 

“It’s fine, go back to bed.”  
He ignored her, sitting up alongside her. 

“Who are you texting?” Finn asked.

She didn’t say. She didn’t have to say. 

“That guy is an asshole. You said it yourself,” Finn said rolling his eyes. 

“His mother just died. The chirovirus…” 

“That doesn’t make him less of an asshole?” Finn questioned her. 

“What do I say to him?” Rey asked, “What can I say?” 

“Why is he texting you? Isn’t there someone else? I kind of get the feeling this guy is dragging you into a place you don’t belong.” 

“That’s not helpful Finn.” 

She had confided in Finn earlier in the week. She told him everything, well not everything. She told him that they were intimate, and that he was very protective, but in the end, too self interested. What she didn’t tell him was that there was something more. A force that drew her to him in an unexplainable way. She thought of him constantly. 

**R: Are you okay?**

B: Not really. She’s officially the property of the CDC. I didn’t get to say goodbye

**R: Jesus.**   
**Ben, I’m so sorry.**   
**I wish I could hug you right now.**

B: You could be hugging me right now, if you had come with me.

His cold statement reminded Rey of why she hadn’t gone with him. It was an unreasonable ask, and now, a ridiculous response. 

**R: That’s not fair. And that doesn’t help anything.**

B: If you came with me, I wouldn’t be alone. 

**R: You’re not alone. I’m here for you now.**

B: No. You’re not here. You’re there.   
I can’t talk anymore. 

**R: Don’t be like that, I’m here for you.**

He didn’t respond, which provided Rey with just as much relief as anguish. 

“Can we turn the light off?” 

“Sure,” Rey said, stepping out of bed. She turned the light out to leave Finn asleep while she took to the chair by the window in their living room. 

A heavy and low fog was surfacing throughout the Dover neighbourhood in SW Calgary. In an effort to limit the amount of people in homeless shelters, the city of Calgary took the initiative to relocate the homeless into hotels throughout the city. This meant that the streets were quieter than ever. 

In the distance, Rey spotted an animal perched at the crossroads between her street and the next. At first glance, it looked like a coyote. Having grown up in Ontario, Rey was still growing accustomed to the west coast. When the animal moved to the right, Rey realized that it was a hare, with some of the largest ears she had ever witnessed. It was a strange and weird time, but the animals weren't bothered. The mountain lions had started to make appearances in the city again now that everyone was quarantined. Well, not everyone. Rey had some privileges. Rey had met with Dr. M & her team a few times over the week. Resources were limited at the lab, results took time, and collecting data and coordinating findings took significantly more time, as it should; medical assumptions require a lot of continuous and reaffirming data. 

She couldn’t get back to sleep. There was no point in trying now. Rey had been experiencing this recurring dream. At first, she dreamt that she had everything she wanted: a garden, a small child, and a house outside the city, which might have been a nightmare, as Rey often expressed that she would never want to bring a child into this world. At some point, she thinks she could fly, so she steps off a bridge, but then she’s underwater. She can’t breath, she’s not sure if she needs to. There’s no way to reach the surface. Only a child standing above the surface looking down at her expressionless, holding a single and sullen pear. The child multiplies with Rey’s anxiety until a village of children are looking through the impenetrable surface. Somehow, in Rey’s sleeping brain and heart, these children are her burden. 

Rey reached for a small wooden container she kept on the bookshelf between Mariam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness and Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. She opened the hand crafted container to find a partially smoked joint. Her guilty pleasure. She opened the window in the living room and lit up. 

With her first inhale and exhale, she watched the smoke move in motion and carry out the window. There is a moment where the weight of the world felt lighter. She takes another toke before putting it out and tucking it away. 

Her thoughts carry her back to Benjamin. When she thought of him, she would speak his name under her breath. In a weird way it made her feel closer to him. It was strange to want him. Isolation had been weighing heavy on her, like everyone else, and Ben had been keeping her and her thoughts good company. 

She thought of him, standing meters away from his mother unable to say goodbye. She thought of the father and young daughter in the UK that were turned away at a hospital because their symptoms were not severe enough only to die together in a 24 hour period. She thought of the 21 year old woman who wasn’t discovered until 16 hours after her death from the virus when her toddler finally found the strength to cry out. She thought of Italy. She thought of Spain. She thought of the homeless people in Australia, recovering from the continent fires now falling ill. She couldn’t stop. Once she started thinking of pain here, she thought of pain there. It was too much. She buried her head in her hands and sobbed. It was so difficult to think of the good when the future lacked clarity in every sense. 

But then there was _hope._

Hope that her recent skin and blood donations would lead to research that may tip the scale of recovery. 

Hope that she could influence Ben. 

Hope that nothing lasts forever. 

Hope that life can always start up anew. 

With that glimpse of hope producing a small amount of light in her heart, she cleared the tears from her face, and like the rest of the world, she set aside her pain and worry for distraction and escapism settling into the couch with Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11273702/heathrow-worker-dad-pharmacist-die-24-hours-coronavirus/
> 
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8148877/Workers-two-Georgia-hospitals-die-coronavirus-number-confirmed-cases-soar.html


	9. The Lost Afternoon of DAY 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still in isolation, Rey & Ben get to know one another, in more ways than one...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, I know. I write sad stories. I’m sorry. This one is all fluff & smut, I know ya’ll deserve it! 
> 
> **THIS TAKES PLACE BETWEEN CH 3 & 4

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

****

**THE LOST AFTERNOON OF DAY 3**

**DATE:** **  
** **14/03/2020**

**TIME: 10:00**

“Ben?”

“Hmm?” 

“I’m sorry Ben, but you need to shower.” 

Ben lifted his arm and caught a whiff of himself. “I think you’re right, kid. Join me?”

“Okay.   
But you have to wash my hair.” 

Ben, who was still holding Rey’s head against his chest, leaned in to kiss the top of her head. Still riding their own personal bliss, they took their time. 

When Ben first ran the water, It was lukewarm at best. Still naked from earlier, he walked into the stream. “Come on, while the water is still hot,” He propositioned Rey. She stepped in and stretched. Ben broke into heavy laughter. 

“That wasn’t nice!” 

“I’m sorry,” He said, flicking some water at her shivering cold body outside the shower, “I’m not nice.” 

“Come,” He said again, this time reaching out his hand, “The water is hot now. I promise.” 

She reached her hand into the stream. To her delight, she discovered Ben had not played the same trick twice. She stepped into the stream facing him. His massive body towered over hers, radiating heat, as the stream hit her back. She let out a big sigh, and moan, like a cat’s purr and moved in closer to Ben. 

Ben reached for a bottle of L'Oréal. With Rey positioned under him, he created a lather with his hands and began to wash her hair. At first, he rubbed both sides of her head like a child cleaning a litre of water by patting it with a single paper towel. 

“Like this,” Rey said, reaching up to his hair and moving in small circles around his head. 

Though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, Ben purred in that moment. Physical closeness is something foreign to Ben and something obviously fluid for Rey. 

He tried her technique, making small circles into her hair until it was completely lathered. She stayed silent the entire time as if she was in a trance. 

She took a step back to rinse the product from her hair. Ben took notice of the way she looked with her arms above her head and water rushing down her body. He reached out to grab her hip and pull her back into him so he could feel her breasts pressed up against his chest again. She allowed him to pull her in, but kept her palms on his chest, Eyes still closed from standing under the stream. 

Bringing her hands back to her head, she wiped the water from her forehead and pulled her hair into hand to twist excess water. 

“Your turn,” She said to him. 

“My turn?” 

She turned him around and reached for a bar of soap. Lathering it into her hands, she began to trace circles all across his back.A low grumble of a moan persisted from Ben as Rey switched from nails to soft palms. 

Rey washed herself, and Ben washed himself. They faced one another smiling and giggling lightly. Especially when Ben had to fold in half to clean all the places and while Rey traced her backside. 

It was intimate on a different level, and they knew that. There are very few opportunities where you are able to be completely vulnerable with a stranger that is both exhilarating and extraordinary. 

With only one towel between the two, Ben offered it to Rey. 

He watched her dry her whole body. It was simple, but erotic. After she was done, she passed the towel to him. When he reached out to grab it, she pulled it away, breaking into her own fit of laughter. 

“So it’s like that, then?” Ben asked. 

Before Rey could respond, he bent down and began to thrash his head back and forth, covering her, the towel and a good portion of the locker room with the water that was trapped in his thick black hair. Rey screamed as the water hit her face. He didn’t need the towel now. He just needed her. He dove from the shower to Rey where he bent down to lift her above his head. A naked Rey was now helpless on his shoulders. 

“Ben, PUT ME DOWN.” 

“I’m sorry, what was that? Did you hear something?” He said, spanking her ass that was now resting on his shoulder. 

“BEN!” 

“Okay, okay sweetheart,” He said, placing her back on the ground. 

She slapped his chest. He didn’t flinch.  
“You can do better than that,” He challenged her. 

“Maybe, but not to you.” 

She rose to her tip toes and placed a kiss on Ben’s face, right next to his mouth. He smiled into it grabbing her ass and pulling her into him. He rested his chin in her shoulder and breathed heavily into her ear before nibbling lightly on the lobe. She pulled away quickly, but Ben wouldn’t let her out of his arms. Instead, he held her there in a hug. 

After a long, and tight hug. Ben let go. Rey got dressed. She wore Ben’s sweater and her black lace panties, while Ben wore his jeans and T-shirt. 

“Coffee?” 

“Yes. Please.” 

~

**TIME: 14:00**

“I would save you.” He said, clearly and confidently. 

“Over 100 strangers?” Rey spoke, “I’m not sure you understand Schelling’s concept of Choice and Consequence.”

“No. I understand the concept fully,” Ben spoke, eyebrows furrowed, “That’s just how I feel.” 

“100 lives Ben. You just killed 100 people.”

“For you, I’d kill 1000. 10,000. Fuck it, I’d kill anyone and everyone,” Ben smiled at her. 

“Now you’re just being charming. I don’t know what you think anymore,” Rey said, dismissing his comment, but obviously blushing out of her goddamn mind.

“Listen, in all honesty, If I had to make that decision today, I would choose you. And you can’t blame me for it. You’re amazing, thoughtful, beautiful. You’re perfect,” He stopped to gage her reaction. She was smiling lightly staring just beyond him. Compliments can be easy to dish and hard to receive. Ben continued, “The world needs you more than 100.” 

“Okay, we can’t talk about this stuff. Let’s talk about something else,” Rey offered, trying to take the spotlight off of herself, “Do you have any hidden talents?”

Ben sat straight up on the ground. Legs crossed, he reached his hands into his hair to tuck it behind his ears, losing himself in thought. 

“I can dance.” 

Rey laughed aloud, “Like… breakdance?” 

“No. Like, ballroom, the waltz, west coast swing. I’ll show you.” 

“You will?” 

“Yes. Give me a second.” Ben rose to his feet and reached into the locker, he grabbed his phone. “Okay, I’m going to play a song by Jon Brion called Little Person and you are going to dance with me.” 

“Jon Brion?”

“Yes. He’s a film score composer. He did Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees. He’s incredible. One of my favourites.” 

“I can’t dance,” Rey admitted. 

“Just follow my lead,” Ben said, reaching his hand out. Rey stood and took his hand. 

“For starters. Your left elbow rests inside mine. And your hand needs to cup mine like this,” He said, positioning his hand into hers. “Another thing, movement isn’t about our feet. Our feet will follow. I actually move you like this,” He said with his arm rested on the small of her back. “See, your hand on mine is the anchor, my hand on your back is the sail.” 

“Hmm. I never thought of it like that,” Rey spoke honestly. 

“Okay, before we start, I need you to loosen up. When I go left,” He said moving left pulling her with him, “You go left. And when I move right,” He said moving her right, “You follow. Understand?” 

“Yes,” Rey spoke with a giant smile from ear to ear. He let go of her and began to move the benches and their blanket cloth fort to the side. 

“Ready?” Ben asked as he reached for his phone and pressed play. 

“I guess?” Rey shrugged. 

The music filled the locker room as Brion’s light and classic piano movements resonated. He led, and she followed. In only jeans and an undershirt, His movements were smooth and elegant, unlike his natural demeanour. Rey moved with him, freely, in her element in his sweater, her panties and barefoot. Using step patterns he carried her across the locker room. When the lyrics “Maybe somewhere far away, I'll find a second little person,” Ben spun Rey out gracefully, and back into his chest with her facing outward. He kept her here until the next phrase, “Who will look at me and say”. He whispered into her ear along with the music, “I know you,” before spinning her back around in a quick delicate step. The lyrics continued, “You're the one I've waited for. Let's have some fun," as Ben switched movement and his hands on her.

Now reversed with her arms caught and rested on the back of her own shoulders, he let go, lifting his elbow up to signal a double spin that would leave Rey an arm's length away from him. Rey, broke out into more spins for the sake of spins. Ben let her enjoy her new found love for spins before directing her back to him. She fell back into his arms, where he slowed his foot movements to allow Rey to break. The lyrics became more intimate, “You're the one I like the best. I'm glad I've found you, Like being around you”. Her head now rested against his chest. When the lyric, “You're the one I like the best”, filled the room, Ben leaned in to kiss the top of her head. Nearing the end of the track. Ben slowly moved her away from his chest to pick up movement again. He spun her out backwards, elegantly and slowly, he signaled her to dip as he caught her on his knee until the song ended. 

Rey could hold her excitement. She squealed as she jumped up in his arms. He caught her at ease. 

“Benjamin Solo, you are full of surprises.” 

A smile broke free from his face and he placed a long, and firm kiss on her lips as if it was the 1920’s. 

“You have to send me this song,” She said, reaching for his phone, “I’m going to leave my number in your notes."

“Rey?” 

“Yes Ben?”

“I don’t want this to end.”

“Well, we have to leave this room at some point,” Rey shrugged. 

“You know what I mean.” 

She knew exactly what he meant. 

“I know,” She said, “Me neither.” She ran her hands through his hair. “You have the most incredible hair. Did you know that?” 

“Rey, I’m being serious right now.” 

She drew her eye contact back to him. 

“Promise me something?” He asked her. 

“I’ll do my best.” 

“Promise me you won’t take your mask off again. Promise me you will be safe, and you won’t take any chances. Do you promise?” 

“I promise Ben.” 

He lowered her to the ground and brought her back into a hug. 

“Do you feel that Ben? It’s kind of like a fire, lit in me, and you that we share.” 

“Is it love?” Ben asked innocently. 

“I don’t know yet,” Rey responded.

“If I could ever love a woman in my life, I hope it’s you.” 

Rey held him tighter in that hug. 

  
~

  
**TIME: 19:00  
  
**

“We’re going to play by my rules right now.”

“What if I don’t like the rules?” Ben asked. 

“Then you can play by yourself,” Rey barked back. 

“Tell me what to do.” 

Rey was realizing that she had this giant beautiful man at her fingertips. 

“Lay down on your back,” She directed his body to the floor, “Your arms have to remain behind your head at all times,” She said moving his arms behind his head. “These are the rules: You cannot move. You cannot speak. And you cannot touch me.” 

“That’s too—”

“—Shh,” She said, as she brought a finger to his mouth. 

He stopped talking mid sentence and his body relaxed. 

Rey took off her (his) sweater. With only her panties on, she straddled his stomach, her legs tucked under his arms with her ass on his chest facing his face. The sight was almost too much for Ben, who sucked his lips into his mouth and let out a big sigh before reverting his eyes to the ceiling. 

He was already hard by the time Rey pulled his piece from the jeans. When she grabbed him, he let out a moan. Rey bit his thigh to retaliate. When he said, “OW,” she said, “punishment for breaking the rules.” Ben’s mischievous smile grew from ear to ear.

She started kissing up and down his cock slowly. Teasing Ben was fun for Rey, being in control of Ben was something else. Ben was following the rules, not a peep from behind her, though she could tell that he was struggling with the arrangement. His breath was heavy now, and more obvious because she was straddling his chest. She took his whole cock in her mouth, rushing it in and out. Every time she deep throated him, his cock got wetter and wetter until his piece was soaking wet. It must have been too much for Ben who broke concentration. 

“Fuck this,” Ben said, reaching out to grab her ass. 

She came to a halt, sat up and turned to look at him. 

“Shit, I fucked up didn’t I?” Ben asked. 

Rey didn’t say anything. Instead, she waited for Ben to return to his instructed position. 

“Now, the rules change,” Rey said. She leaned her upper body back into his cock, but this time she didn’t touch him, instead, she exiled heavily on his cock, allowing the hot air to tease him as she moved. She didn’t stop there. She moved her ass on his chest in circles jiggling for him, every now and again smashing it down on his chest and tightening her lengths along the length of him. She moved her head back and forth in a way where the hair would lightly pass his cock to tickle him. Ben’s breath picked up, Rey could feel it growing under her. As she continued to tease him, she watched his giant cock in complete awe. It truly was something that deserved admiration. Perfectly long and wide, when she moaned, his piece would flutter forward and back.   
  
After a few minutes, she turned to face him as she straddled. She sat right on top of his cock. Now with only her panties between them, she moved back and forth while grinding against him and tracing her hands up and down her tits. Ben was growing impatient. Each time she grinded down on him, he would cheat a little, lifting his pelvis up to feel the weight of her on him. His eyes were hungry for her. It’s hard to say whether or not Ben even allowed himself to blink this moment. He did move his jaw from side to side, sucking his lips in and out as he dealt with the inability to move under Rey’s very strict rules. 

She leaned down and lingered her lips above his. He opened his mouth slightly, in hopes that Rey would take his invitation. But she didn’t. Instead she sat back up smiling proud. 

“Okay, you can move.” 

Ben wasted no time. He sat up pulling her face to his. At this rate, he was going to swallow her hole. His hands moved aggressively up and down her back, as if he had been immobile his entire life. He reached to pull her panties to the side to find that Rey was soaking wet. 

“You are a very good girl, Rey. We played your game, and now we’re going to finish with my game and my rules.” 

“And what are those rules?” Rey asked. 

“You’re going to cum on my cock, just like this, while wearing those soaking wet panties,” He said as he parted her panties to the side again and rushed himself inside of her. When he was buried in her completely, he let out a large moan, finally allowing himself to blink. Though Rey was on top, Ben did most of the work by lifting her delicate body up and smashing it back down on his cock. He bent his knees up so he could push Rey back. He wanted to hit all her spots. He wanted to fill her. He wanted to fulfill her, but there wasn’t much time. Ben had been on the brink of his orgasm for too long already.

“You’re going to come for me, Rey.” 

“I am," Rey said, veering close to her orgasm too. 

“Good girl,” Ben said, “This will only hurt a little,” He said, ripping her panties off her ass and tossing them across the locker room.

Normally, this would have caught Rey off guard, but she was in the moment. She placed the palm of her hands on his chest and began to lift her ass up and smack it down. Her face hovered above his. 

“Okay. Come for me girl. Come for me now, like a good girl.” 

Rey’s speed picked up. The moment his chest tightened, Rey knew it was time. 

She arched her back up and let out a roaring moan as she came on his cock. Ben, unable to make a sound, swallowed his own breath in silence as he blacked out momentarily. 

In a pant, Rey collapsed on his chest. When he came too he laughed a little. “I’ll play by your rules any day of the week, Kid,” He said kissing the top of her head. He rolled her over to his side and embraced her in her a hug. 

They fell asleep shortly afterward. 


	10. DAY 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot has changed in the world around them. Both Ben and Rey relish every opportunity to escape into their relationship. Rey struggles to get a handle on her home life and phones Ben from the roadside, who is still struggling with his anger, and now, his new obsession of Rey.

**QUARANTINE**

by: OAK SAVI

**CH 10: DAY 27**

**  
**DATE: **  
** **04/10/2020**

“Rey?” 

She sighed. “Yes?”

“It feels better with you under my arms.” 

A simple request, but one she couldn’t meet. Things had been getting increasingly uncomfortable over the last couple of rests. Finn moved in closer to her, wrapping his body around hers. Rey lay still, stiff and reluctant to his touch. 

“I’ll tell you a secret if you tell me one,” Finn offered. 

The words rolled off his tongue were meant to be playful, almost childlike, but to Rey, it was worthy of recoil. He planted his face into her neck and exhaled deeply. 

“Okay, that’s too much,” She said, wiggling out from under him and stepping up. 

“I thought you wanted this?” he started, “I thought you wanted me.” 

“Finn, you’re like a brother to me,” She said, grabbing some of her clothes from out of her closet. 

“This is about him, isn’t it?” 

“I just can’t do this right now,” Rey responded.

“He’s only using you Rey. You mean nothing to him. Seriously, he used you in France, and he’s using you now. He’s just some lonely dude in isolation,” Finn argued, his voice getting lower, yet louder with each word. “I have been here everyday for you. Every-fucking-day for years.” 

She started to pack her backpack in a hurry, shoving things in. 

“What? now you’re leaving?” He asked.

“Yes,” She spoke with conviction, “I can’t be here anymore.” 

“Rey, come back to bed. There’s nowhere to go. It’s not safe out there. Not since Lethbridge let out.” 

Rey knew this, but she didn’t care. Lethbridge, amongst many correctional facilities throughout North America, had been releasing inmates in response to the virus. Regardless, this was not a safe place for her head, or her heart anymore. She gathered her wallet, and searched for the car keys. 

Finn ran from the room. 

“I’m sorry, Rey. Please. We can talk about this,” Finn pleased. 

The door slammed behind her leaving Finn in the shadows of their shared apartment. The sun hadn’t risen just yet. Rey peeled out fast, trailing marks of rubber stripped behind on the road where the car was parked. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but just about anywhere else would do. 

Finn wasn’t always like this. Sure, he took notice when she came of age, but never in their lifetime had he pushed himself on her. It wasn’t affection. Affection is something that is desired to be received. She did not desire Finn in that way, though more than ever, she did crave to be desired by Ben. She had been talking to Ben everyday for weeks now. Escaping into exchanges where they shared music, film, and memories together. 

The words Finn spoke earlier began to spike paranoia in Rey, who was picking up speed, paying little to no attention to her surroundings. Was Rey just a muse for Ben? Ben had told her repeatedly that she was perfect. Something that was lovely to hear but weighed on her. No one is ever really perfect. She began to panic. She wondered if she had just spent the last few weeks in a fantasy. Surely, a man like Ben could have several women at his call. She felt like a fool, again. She held onto the tears that seemed to boil heavy at the bottom of her eyes but also too stubborn to escape. 

Driving east, she was headed towards the sunrise. In a fury, she allowed her speed to pick up. This was liberating for Rey, who like most of the world, had been quarantined into her apartment. She ran a yellow, and then another. She was playing with fate. When an animal abruptly ran into the road, she swerved to miss, sliding her passenger rims against, and then over a curb onto a sidewalk strip undergoing construction. It was too late, she felt the tire flatten immediately and pulled off to the side of a residential road. Banging on her steering wheel, she let out a roar of a scream.

Her hands were shaking now. She reached for her phone. It was 4:42 am. Seeing as she had nowhere to go, and nothing to do, the tire suddenly felt less urgent. Instead, she roamed her text messages with Ben. He had said something earlier that week that had stayed in her thoughts: I’m beginning to think you’re a figment of my imagination and I’m just losing my mind during this lockdown because you’re actually perfect. She read it over and over again. 

In the height of her isolation, Rey had come to the realization that she was most certainly not perfect. For every one or two good days, she felt the weight of the world on the following day. Refusing to allow these thoughts to destroy what little confidence she felt in this moment, she decided to take control. Opening her door, she made her way to the passenger side of the car. She had definitely added some scratches to the rims, but overall, the only real issue in sight was the flat tire. She sat on the curb and googled how to change a flat tire. After watching a few videos, she had a pretty good idea. 

Opening the trunk, she moved over some of her and Finn’s belongings to retrieve the jack, spare and tire iron. The rubber was torn on the tire, making it difficult to remove. After a few minutes of frustration, Rey found herself sitting back on the curb, staring at a task she neither asked for, nor wanted, but most definitely deserved. 

She reached for her phone. It was 5:16am. There was only one person she wanted to call. Only one person she could stand to listen to. Only one person who could ease her frustration. The only question was whether or not it was appropriate to call. Ben and Rey had spent many days going back and forth via texting, but had yet to breach the phone conversation. Before she could change her mind, she dialed out. After two rings she hung up. Feeling nervous, she slipped her phone back into her back pocket. It began to vibrate. She fumbled with it at the curb-side. It was him. She held the phone and let it ring two times, thinking that’s a reasonable amount of time for some arbitrary reason she couldn’t explain. 

“Hello?” Rey spoke lightly. 

“Holy fuck kid, it’s early. Are you okay?” He said, his voice low and a little corse. 

“Ben?” 

“Who else would it be?” 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I shouldn’t have called. I can figure this out. I can just let you go, it’s not a big deal. I’m fine,” She spoke in a hurry. 

“What’s going on?” He said, genuinely concerned. 

“Well, I was driving, and I almost hit a coyote or something. I don’t know, it all happened too fast. Long story short, I have a flat, and I’m having trouble changing it,” She admitted.

“So, you’re okay?”

“Yes Ben, I’m fine,” Rey responded. 

There was a moment of silence. 

“Are you still there?” Rey Asked. 

“Yeah, I was just thinking about how nice it is to hear your voice first thing in the morning.” 

Rey blushed on the other end of her phone, “Well, it would be even nicer if you could walk me through this.” 

“Sure thing, Kid. Why don’t you turn your video on and I can see where you are and what you’re working with,” Ben stated. 

“Ugh, okay. Give me one minute, I’ll grab my headphones.” 

She didn’t need to find her headphones. They were already around her neck. Instead, she stopped to check her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was down, not brushed, but not terribly out of sort. She was wearing an oversized, and beat up nirvana shirt she had found at a local thrift store, some old jeans and her white chucks. She didn’t look nearly as messy as she felt. 

“One more moment…” She said, tracing her lips with chapstick.

“I’ll video call you back in a second, Kid.” 

Before she could say okay, he had hung up and was calling back. Rey had seen him in videos over the last couple of weeks and even a couple photos that he had sent, but this would be the first time she had seen him like this. Her heart pounded as her phone rang again. She accepted the video-call. 

Ben was sitting up in bed, most of his chest bare with the blankets up to his waist. Rey nearly swallowed her tongue, as all the moisture mysteriously left her mouth agape staring back at him. She knew he was fit, but it always came as a surprise. His pecs were heavily defined, possibly even more than the last time she had physically been with him. Without the possibility of a haircut, Ben’s thick black and silky hair had grown to his shoulders. She traced her line of sight from chest to his eyes. He held a small smile in place for her. When she realized this, she smiled too, bringing her hand to her face to cover her mouth a little. 

“You look good,” She said, giggling into her hand. 

“Kid, you’ve never looked cuter. Now where the hell are you?” 

“I have no idea,” She said honestly to Ben.

“Okay, show me where you are at,” Ben asked 

She turned the camera away from her and walked to her car. 

“So, I hit a curb, popped a tire. I’m struggling with removing tire bits, but have all these tools and watched some youtube videos…. so If you could just supervise this for me, that would be great,” She said, moving her camera around to view both the tire, and the tools. 

“That’s not a flat tire, that tire is fucked. What did you hit?” He asked. 

“Oh you know, an elderly couple pushing several babies in strollers,” She replied snarky, “I hit a curb.” 

“No Rey, you ate a curb.” 

“Fine, whatever. What do I do next?” She asked. 

“First I’m going to need you to look into the camera again.” 

Rey turned her phone in her hand. 

“That’s very good, Kid. Now I need you to say that you need me right now,” Ben said, rolling his tongue behind his bottom lip.

“Ben! This is not a time to play games!” Rey replied.

“Are you wearing a bra under that shirt?” 

“BEN!” 

“Say it,” He demanded. 

Ben had been teaching Rey all sorts of fun games to play over the pandemic. His favourites were the ones where he dominated Rey’s movements, denying her of the opportunity to touch herself without his consent. It was fun to pretend, even in a moment like this. 

“I need you, Ben,” Rey gave in. She liked these games more than she was willing to admit. 

“Good girl,” He smiled deeply, “First things first, you have to get the car onto the jack.” 

“Okay. I can do that,” Rey replied. 

“I know you can, Kid. You got this,” He replied. 

She propped the phone against her water bottle on the curb and began working the jack. Sitting on her heels. 

“The jack has to be positioned at the contact point under the car. Do you know where that spot is?” Ben asked. 

“Um… I can look?” Rey offered. 

“It should be a clearly defined square under the car, located near the side of the car by the wheel,” Ben replied. 

“I’m sorry, I need my flashlight, give me a sec,” She said, reaching for her phone to turn on the flashlight. “Can you hear me?” She asked. 

“Yes,” He responded

“It’s here! I found it!” Rey cheered.

“Okay, you’re going to want to make sure that’s the contact point for the jack, and use the tool attached to the jack to cycle the gears which will lift the car,” He stated. 

“Ben?” Rey asked. 

“Yeah?” Ben asked.

“I really, really appreciate this. And I really appreciate you.” 

“Let me know when you got it.”

She set the phone down, face up on the sidewalk. On her knees, she began to turn the gears in the jack. “This isn’t so bad,” She stated to Ben. 

“I agree,” Said Ben, who was now watching her, or rather looking up at her. Each time she turned the tool on the jack to lift the car, her small curves writhed with her, which presented a pleasant view for Ben. 

“Great Kid. Now you have to—”

“—Remove the slug bolts, I know,” Rey interrupted him. 

Ben’s smile stretched across his face, “Lug bolts?” 

“Lug bolts,” Rey shrugged, “That’s what I said.” 

One rolled under the car. Ben watched from his phone as Rey laid flat on her stomach reaching for it under the car unknowingly giving Ben quite a show. 

“You’re killing me right now, Kid.” 

She retrieved the bolt and showed him in the camera. 

“Got it!” She said proudly, her shirt covered in fresh dirt. 

“Okay. What’s next?” Ben asked. 

“I’m going to remove this tire, put the spare on and tighten the bolts again,” Rey replied. 

“You do that, I’m going to get out of bed and brush my teeth,” Ben replied. 

Rey stopped to watch Ben. With his phone in his hand, he held the view closer to his waist than his face. Rey took a break to admire the view. Even in the blurry movement of his body, Rey felt excited. 

“How’s it going?” Ben asked, toothpaste in his mouth. 

“Yep. It’s great. I’m just… plugging away over here,” Rey replied. Tossing the old tire off to the side and putting on the new one. 

She continued to move through the process, tightening each lug bolt and lowering the jack, all while Ben watched. When it was all said it done, she wiped her hands on her jeans and fell back onto the curb. 

She reached for her phone, lifting it up over her head so Ben could see her laying on some strange curb and grass. “Wow. I did a thing.” 

“You did a thing,” Ben replied. 

“I’m going to tell people I did it all by myself,” She told him, “I mean, technically I did. But I couldn’t have done it without your help. Thank you, truly, thank you.” 

Now dressed in his workout clothes, he said, “Happy to oblige.”

“Where are you off to now?” Ben asked.

“Nowhere.” 

“Maybe you could find a place to buy another tire?” Ben suggested.

“Maybe,” Rey responded, “Or maybe I’ll just park my car in different places all day. I don’t want to be at home right now. Some shit went down earlier.” 

“What do you mean?” Asked Ben

“Finn and I have been sharing a bed for a few days. He made a pass at me this morning.” 

Ben’s facial expression shifted from curious to rigid, “He made a pass at you?” 

“It’s not a big deal, Ben. Everyone is having an existential crisis right now. I’m not mad, I just had to get out of there.”

“Did he touch you?” Ben asked.

“Well, he’s my roommate, practically my brother, he touches me all the time.” 

His voice was now quick, irritated and cold. “I said, did he touch you?” 

“It’s not what you think Ben,” Rey said. 

Then there was silence. Ben had placed his phone on a surface where his facial expression could not be seen. 

“Are you always this possessive?” Rey asked.

“The desire to possess is overwhelming. I must have you; others must not have you. It’s both,” Ben responded. 

He was possessive. A trait that Rey feared just as much as she secretly cherished. She didn’t respond to him instantly. The silence grew from seconds to minutes, where Rey spent forming her thoughts and potential response. 

“Ben?” 

Silence.

She lifted her phone to find that it had died at some point. 

“Shit,” She said aloud to herself. 

She packed up her things, turned on her car and plugged in her phone. The sun was starting to rise now. Without thought, or reason, she continued her drive east. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one, I know.   
> CH 11/12 are in the editing phase & I'll be posting those hopefully tomorrow.   
> Stay well & be courteous out there <3

**Author's Note:**

> CHIROVID_19  
> Chrio: chiroptera, the scientific name for bat, where the origin of the virus is from.  
> VID: virus, infectious, disease,  
> 19: The year of the outbreak
> 
> Inspired by real life, I wrote a pandemic love story. My heart goes out to all of the lonely people cooped up in their homes, all the people who have been affected and all the affliction to come by it. 
> 
> Also, feel free to show me some love. I started a couple months ago and could honestly use a pat on the back these days.


End file.
